Pay.UK has announced a ‘major collaboration’ with some of the leading UK payments firms to establish a network that better prevents fraud attacks in the payments ecosystem.
Using the combined data power of companies such as Visa, Synectics Solutions and Featurespaces, Pay.UK will launch a pilot of the initiative that will help banks and building societies safely and securely analyse money flows through predictive intelligence to detect fraud and prevent attacks before they happen.
Visa and the two other partners will test the pilot and analyse the potential benefits before making the next decision on any other future launches.
Each partner participating in the pilot will receive faster payments transaction data from participating banks under a data-sharing agreement. The selected suppliers will then build artificial intelligence and machine learning models which will identify suspicious activity and compare it to known fraudulent behaviours.
It is planned that the overlay will ultimately be offered to payment service providers as a new product to help the fight against fraud, building on the work of Confirmation of Payee, an anti-fraud overlay tool that Pay.UK rolled out in 2020.
The service will also be built into the New Payments Architecture, a “revolutionary, once-in-a-generation” upgrade to the UK payments system that Pay.UK is developing, enabling more choice, speed and security for anyone who sends and receives money in the UK.
“Fraud is one of the biggest challenges we face today, with more people than ever feeling its devastating financial and emotional impact. Fraud losses exceeded £1bn last year, which is equivalent to around £2,300 being stolen every minute,” said Kate Frankish, Chief Business Development Officer and Anti-Fraud Lead at Pay.UK.
“To outpace the scammers, we will need to work together, with better collaboration and knowledge sharing. That’s why Pay.UK is bringing the payments industry together to share data and resources.
“This announcement is a UK first and a major step in the right direction, made possible by Pay.UK’s convening power at the heart of the payments system.”
