Sionic, a leading provider of real-time, Pay-by-Bank Commerce (PbBC) services, today announced the launch of its comprehensive fraud detection and mitigation service built exclusively for real-time, bank-to-bank payments at checkouts, whether online, mobile or in-store. Using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, Sionic is able to help financial institutions and retailers detect fraud more effectively.

The Sionic Fraud Protection Service (FPS) is the final component required for true Pay-by-Bank transactions at the point of sale, alongside verified buyer and seller credentials, a consistent customer experience and automated dispute resolution instantly between payers and payees.

Sionic is committed to ensuring financial institutions, merchants and consumers enjoy the benefits of real-time bank payments without the worry of fraud. Sionic teamed with Google Cloud Consulting to design and build the specific use case AI models. Fellow Google Cloud partner Slalom, as subject matter experts in creating AI-based synthetic data, supported the data creation to train the models based on their global bank fraud detection practice.

"We are investing heavily in a comprehensive and innovative instant payments system, with the kind of security that is lacking in today’s real-time payment landscape,” said Matt Watson, chief technology officer at Sionic. ”By utilizing Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, and implementing essential payment security features, we’ll be able to tackle fraud in a unique way that will give us the edge over our competitors.”

Sionic is addressing the largest use case for real-time payments by consumers using their Apple or Google wallet to pay for goods and services directly with a Bank Perks pass and earn instant perks from participating merchants. Merchants receive the digital direct deposits in seconds and bypass expensive credit card processing fees.

US financial institutions participating in either real-time bank payment rail and wanting to offer Pay-by-Bank Commerce services to their business and personal account holders will be required to likewise participate in FPS. Enterprise retailers may also join the Beta Program, which will be available for enrollment on August 15, 2024 through the company’s website sionic.io.