The Record - Issue 18: Autumn 2020

125 We asked a selection of key Microsoft partners about how they are helping banks to optimise their payments processes Partner perspectives “With an ever-evolving regulatory landscape and increasing consumer adoption of digital technology accelerated by Covid-19, banks are turning to ACI Worldwide as a trusted partner to support their payment and digital transformation journeys. As a global provider of real-time payment and retail banking solutions, ACI fully appreciates how the cloud can grow its business and help banks and other organisations become more agile and enhance their products and services. It’s why ACI is looking to the digital skies as part of its core business. Key needs supported by ACI include speed to market, real time adoption, the ability to reduce transaction friction to increase revenue while controlling fraud losses and spending more time focussed on customer enhancing activity as they transition from a transaction-based fee model to a service model.” Ciaran Chu Head of public cloud at ACI Worldwide  F I NANC I A L S E R V I C E S “Mule accounts are critical to the cash out process in financial crimes. The increase in peer-to-peer platforms and faster payments, combined with the lack of industry standards for detection and monitoring, has created an ideal environment for mule accounts to flourish. According to Aite Group, one in two financial institutions do not currently track mule activity and lack the information or resources to do so. This has forced many financial institutions to turn to technology to solve the problem. BioCatch’s behavioural biometrics technology, which is currently delivered as a service on the Microsoft Azure cloud, is helping financial institutions overcome this challenge with risk models to detect mule accounts before fraud is perpetrated in both the new account opening process and at the point of payment. With BioCatch, financial institutions can proactively protect their customers from the impacts of identity theft without requiring them to do anything differently. A large bank leveraging BioCatch technology detected 90% of mule accounts before a fraud could occur, representing a 500% improvement in their overall mule detection capabilities.” Ayelet Eliezer Vice president of products at BioCatch