Federal Bank Combats Card and Merchant Fraud with ACI Worldwide’s

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, announced that Federal Bank is leveraging its UP Payments Risk Management solution to identify fraudulent card activity, mitigate losses and enhance customer relationships. Through ACI’s solution, the bank can enhance fraud detection capabilities with insights into real-time status of card transactions based on pre-defined parameters, empowering the bank to provide better customer experience and security. 

Federal Bank, one of India’s largest private sector commercial banks, has more than 2,800 touchpoints (over 1,200 branches and over 1,600 ATMs) spread across the country, serving a customer base of more than 10 million. The bank is a technology pioneer among India’s private sector banks and was one of the first to computerize all its branches. To address the evolving threat of fraud and offer additional security for digital transactions, Federal Bank sought to deploy a rules-based solution with real-time monitoring for deterring, detecting and blocking fraud. ACI customized its fraud and risk management solution for Federal Bank at two action levels: cards and merchants. 

“Our objective was to equip Federal Bank with real-time reactivity and adaptation to emerging fraud trends, enabling faster decision-making,” said Kaushik Roy, vice president and country leader – South Asia, ACI Worldwide. “We’re delighted to partner with the bank in its ongoing digital transformation journey, delivering a solution that incorporates fraud and payments data through proprietary as well as third-party modelling."

According to RBI data, from October to December 2019, debit card fraud alone reached 11,058 cases involving Rs 94.5 crore, or USD $12.4 million. While traditional rules-only fraud detection systems are adequate at detecting known threats, they are not as effective or efficient at uncovering new criminal fraud strategies or zero-day attacks, putting banks and their customers at risk. Federal Bank required a counter-fraud solution for both its cardholders and merchants, with real-time and near real-time facilities and mission-critical features that are easy to deploy, responsive and reduce the financial impacts of fraud. 

After deploying UP Payments Risk Management for real-time monitoring of card transactions the bank saw a considerable drop in fraudulent transactions, including vishing fraud. In addition to alerting customers of risks, the solution also includes automated alerts that have helped the bank recognize and decline potential fraudulent transactions on more than 2,700 cards over a recent six-month period.

“Digital technologies are transforming the way people access banking services and at Federal Bank, our aim is to provide a frictionless experience at every touchpoint. While security challenges for banks are changing fundamentally, we want to make sure that we are always ahead of fraudsters,” said Shalini Warrier, executive director, Federal Bank. “Given ACI’s expertise and proven ability to scale, we approached them to discuss our fraud and risk management requirements. Since the solution enables us to protect our customers against several types of fraud, not only does this significantly improve their satisfaction and mitigate risk, but it also helps us stay ahead of the digital curve.”