On 13 July 2021, a fraud analyst in Estonia noticed a phishing pattern spreading across SmartID logins and fired off a warning to a neighbouring bank.

Within minutes, an agent there had uncovered seven matching accounts, and €45,000 was kept out of criminal hands that same afternoon. That exchange was the very first message sent through Salv Bridge, and five years later the once-novel act of one bank flagging a risk to another has become entirely routine. One mid-sized bank has averaged 60 such messages a day, every working day, for half a decade.

Salv recently discussed five years of banks sharing fraud and AML data in real time, and what has changed since the introduction of Salv Bridge.

Banks have always tipped each other off about suspicious activity, but historically it happened informally and outside any policy framework. Salv CEO and co-founder Taavi Tamkivi said, 'Fincrime fighters compare notes over coffee, or send a 'you might want to take a look at this customer' message to a former colleague. That's suspicion passed on quickly, with good intentions. But quietly, informally, and outside policy.'

The gap Bridge filled was structural. Every institution runs its own defences, yet the same customer could be flagged as high-risk at one bank while appearing spotless at the next. What was missing was a fast, compliant and secure route to see what the bank next door already knew.

Bridge did not emerge from a technology push but from a customer's frustration at having useful intelligence and no lawful way to pass it on. A pilot followed, then a network. Its first serious stress test arrived when Russia invaded Ukraine and sanctions cases quadrupled almost overnight - pressure the platform withstood.

What began with four Estonian banks, Swedbank, SEB, Luminor and LHV, now spans institutions across more than 16 countries, including a dedicated cross-border cluster serving a pan-European and UK FinTech group. Some markets organised themselves directly, others via bank associations, but both routes converged on the same outcome.

The numbers after five years are striking. Banks have collaborated on more than 75,000 joint investigations covering fraud, sanctions and AML, and run over 200,000 joint screening queries. Fraud cases shared through Bridge carry an 84% true-positive rate, the median bank-to-bank response time is 17 minutes, and roughly 80% of cases see at least partial fund recovery.

Regulation is now catching up. Salv's 2022 whitepaper predicted EU-wide mandatory data sharing 'as early as 2024' - optimistic on timing, correct on direction. AMLR Article 75 makes AML information-sharing mandatory from July 2027, with PSR Article 83a expected to do the same for fraud from early 2028.

Coop Pank sanctions and CTF officer Siiri Grabbi said, 'Bridge proves that collaboration works. It helps us respond faster, protect more customers and, most importantly, build trust between people who once worked in isolation. Every message shared strengthens that trust. Every quick response shows why it matters. When people know the person on the other side, cooperation becomes instinctive. The best operation is cooperation!'

Salv says the network continues to grow, with every European institution eventually set to face the question Estonia's banks answered in 2021 - only now with five years of evidence to draw on.