Sibos 2018: Robots to the rescue for payments fraud
Safety has retreated as a concern for payment providers thanks to the emergence of robotic and artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the payments space.
“Safety is not a major concern for transactions because they are safe thanks to AI”
This was Clara Shi’s major message during the day one payments session at Sibos. She is the senior MD, head of financial institution strategic partnership department, international business group, with Ant Financial.
“Safety is not a major concern for transactions because they are safe thanks to AI,” she said.
Shi said at Ant Financial, for every $1 million transacted, less than $1 is lost to fraud, and overall, fraud in China is extremely low.
Panellists debated whether real-time payments are causing headaches from a security perspective. But Jennifer Boussuge, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s treasury fulfilment, service and operations executive, argued banks have been addressing this for many years, with technology now focused on identifying changes in the pattern of transactions and customer payments as they happen.
“Being able to process data upfront with AI and robotics keeps us ahead of the fraud community,” she said.
Philippe Henry, HSBC’s global head of corporate, financials and multinationals banking, told the audience the bank had invested $2.3 billion to protect its systems through tools such as touch ID and face ID.
Collaboration was also a focus and Shi explained Ant Financial launched nine digital payment wallets across Asia Pacific, and works alongside local providers.
How different partners in financial services work together was a theme the panellists explored in depth, especially the connection between incumbents and the many fintechs working on solutions in payments.
Boussuge pointed to the “API-sation” of the industry and how necessary it is for fintechs and banks to work together in light of this. The question is who owns the data.
“Fintechs are running on banks’ rails. If we partner with fintechs or vendors, we own the customer data and we don’t allow fintechs access to it. But clients ultimately own this information and they can choose if they want to make it available to a third party,” she said.
Overall, Henry said there needs to be a philosophical change from viewing banking as a product to Banking-as-a-Service.
By Daily News at Sibos contributor Alexandra Cain
This article is also featured in Daily News at Sibos 2018, our flagship daily publication at the Sibos conference.
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