BioCatch Unveils ‘Behavior-Based’ Financial Crime Intelligence Network

Fraud prevention firm BioCatch launched what it called “the world’s first interbank, behavior-based, financial crime intelligence-sharing network.”

The BioCatch Trust Network is designed to protect the company’s banking customers against scams, fraud and other financial crimes by offering real-time assessments of account trustworthiness, according to a Wednesday (Nov. 20) press release.

“The network’s foundational behavioral intelligence engine ingests country-specific digital session, payment, account, device, IP and geolocation, and non-monetary event signals to holistically evaluate the trustworthiness of every receiving account before a payment is processed,” the release said.

If the network determines an account receiving payments is not trustworthy, it tells the sending bank in real time so that bank can stop and examine the transaction before money leaves the sender’s account.

“Scam payments are nearly always transferred to mule accounts through which scammers launder their profits before withdrawing them,” BioCatch CEO Gadi Mazor said in the release. “To combat this rampant criminal activity, it’s crucial for sending and receiving banks to collaborate and share intelligence in real time to proactively identify these money mules and halt payments to them.”

This cooperation can reduce scams and disrupt money laundering efforts as criminals routinely swap strategies, tactics, intelligence and tech with rival cybercriminals, Mazor said in the release.

BioCatch launched the network Wednesday in Australia with five of that country’s largest banks. The network is aimed at helping banks protect customers from common cybercrimes such as authorized push payment fraud and social engineering scams.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke Wednesday with Featurespace founder David Excell about the glut of information being thrown at banks and consumers as they try to deal with fraud.

Banks face a twofold challenge. They need to give a seamless experience to their customers, even though some people would like a bit of complexity and even friction in the mix when it comes to stopping fraudsters. They’re comfortable with banks contacting them if they spot anomalous behavior to ensure that transactions will go forward according to the customers’ wishes.

Featurespace’s ARIC platform helps in this situation, using adaptive behavioral analytics to analyze customer behavioral data in a cloud-based environment.