Author: Vivekananda J

Challenger Banks have undoubtedly been a great idea as they have redefined banking with a brand-new model. But they cannot side-step the foundational principle, i.e. banking is a business of trust – something that can be impacted with just one unexpected incident. While their innovative customer-centric strategies make Challenger Banks agile and responsive, the rush to make customer onboarding fast and effortless also makes them more vulnerable to the growing threat of financial crimes.

A recent survey by the National Center for Public Opinion Surveys under the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue revealed that 62% of Saudis are exposed to attempts of financial fraud. About 28% of those who were exposed to financial fraud attempts said that there was a relationship between the financial fraud attempt they had been exposed to and a previous activity they had done.

Cut to the beginning of the last decade when the cheque began going through an existential crisis. With digital payments rapidly creating a cashless economy, the cheque has begun heading for the exit door. But there are vast populations that still rely on cheques for transferring funds, so a complete shift to a cashless / paperless economy & society is still a little away.

Given the response strategies to the COVID-19 pandemic implemented by federal, state and local governments globally, consumers’ behavioral changes during this phase, and Financial Institutions’ (FIs) staffing and mobility constraints, fraud prevention must be tackled in a different manner.

Loan fraud is impacting smaller banks, community banks and credit unions at twice the rate of larger counterparts. An innovative approach helps smaller financial institutions do more to detect fraud hidden in bad loans to reduce losses and increase approval rates.

As per ACFE’s last Report to the Nations, fraud is a staggering $ 4 trillion global problem – a size and scale astronomical enough for every bank to seriously rethink their entire fraud risk management approach. Let’s take a look at the top 5 implementable best practices that make for the foundation of a robust banking enterprise anti-fraud framework.

Business intelligence (BI) solutions are not new to banking. With a blend of tools, techniques, and technology, BI processes information with accuracy, which otherwise would have been performed by humans. BI solutions have been enabling banks with capabilities to generate more revenue, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and more.

Open banking (under the European Union’s Revised Payment Services Directive or PSD2), means third parties can link up to customers’ accounts, provided the customer consents. With data-sharing as the central feature, open banking is designed to encourage higher product and service innovation, make it easier for non-banks to participate and streamline user experience.