Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration in finance is continuing at a global scale, with Swift announcing two experiments with its member banks to examine the technology’s use.
As with various other financial organisations and institutions, Swift is examining how AI can be used to counter fraud. Cross-border payments fraud and cutting down on fraud-related costs are a particular area of focus for the banking cooperative.
Swift members such as BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, DNB, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo and Standard Bank will partake in the experiments, which the stakeholders hope will lead to wider information sharing in fraud detection.
Tom Zschach, Chief Innovation Officer at Swift, remarked: “AI has great potential to significantly reduce fraud in the financial industry. That’s an incredibly exciting prospect, but one that will require strong collaboration.
“Swift has a unique ability to bring financial organisations together to harness the benefits of AI in the interests of the industry, and we’re excited by the potential of both of these pilots to help further strengthen the cross-border payments ecosystem.”
The first experiment will focus on Swift’s Payments Controls service. The banking cooperative aims to examine how an AI model can create a nuanced and accurate picture of potential fraud activity based on historical network activity, working with Payments Controls customers to do so.
For the second experiment, Swift plans to work with 10 financial institutions to test how AI can analyse anonymously-shared data from different sources. The cooperative hopes that this can be used to strengthen the global financial system in general, and stressed that AI “could be a game-changer for the industry”.
AI’s use in fraud prevention and detection is a widely discussed phenomen – Payment Expert has heard observations from various companies in this field, such as AU10TIX and SEON, on how AI can help in this regard.
Various banking and payments stakeholders have been probing how AI can be used for fraud prevention, and for other efforts. HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, NatWest and Mastercard are just some of the firms to be doing so.
The experiments into the potential of AI in fraud prevention at Swift – a worldwide banking cooperative network – shows that AI’s fraud prevention potential is being taken to global levels.
Ole Matthiessen, Global Head of Cash Management & Head of Corporate Bank APAC, Middle East & Africa at Deutsche Bank, said: “Our passion for holistic payment solutions is founded on expertise, technology, and innovation; not only in terms of our own strategic product development, but importantly through our strong dedication to drive partnership and collaboration across the market.
“Through these industry initiatives, we have the potential to enhance our ability to detect fraud and reduce operational costs, whilst delivering a premium customer experience and contributing towards a more secure market environment.”
Manish Kohli, Head of Global Payments Solutions at HSBC, added: “Building financial resiliency and strengthening risk management is a key priority for our clients and they are looking to us to help them better manage uncertainty and threat through our solutions while supporting their businesses to grow and transform.
“By utilising new technology and collaborating across the industry to fight fraud, we are helping protect our customers, our data and the bank.”
