SWIFT today publishes a new cyber report, ‘Three years on from Bangladesh: tackling the adversaries’, providing new insights into the evolving nature of the cyber threats facing the global financial community.

Key findings show that:

·       Four out of every five of all fraudulent transactions were issued to Beneficiary accounts in South East Asia^1[1]

·       Approximately 70 per cent of attempted thefts were USD-based – but usage of European currencies increased 

·       The value of each individual attempted fraudulent transaction decreased dramatically – from more than USD$10m to between USD$250,000 and USD$2m

Three years after the cyber attack on Bangladesh Bank, and the subsequent launch of SWIFT’s Customer Security Programme (CSP), SWIFT’s study of cyber attacks on banks evidences how efforts to promote robust cyber security standards, the introduction of security-enhancing tools and an increase in the scope and quality of cyber threat intelligence sharing, are paying off.

Based on investigations conducted over the last 15 months, the report shows how closer industry collaboration resulted in the quick identification of financial institutions targeted by cyber criminals – in most cases, before attackers were even able to generate fraudulent messages. In particular, the exchange of relevant and timely cyber threat intelligence has proved critical in effectively detecting and preventing attacks. 

Dries Watteyne, Head of Cyber Security Incident Response Team at SWIFT, said: “SWIFT’s threat intelligence sharing has highlighted the changes to cyber criminals’ tactics, techniques and procedures used in attempted attacks, enabling industry participants to understand and respond to the increasingly sophisticated nature of cyber threats. In this report, SWIFT reveals important information about the evolving payment profile to enable more accurate detection through business indicators. It is encouraging that detection rates of attempted attacks are increasing, but we need to be mindful that malicious actors adapt rapidly. The industry must continuously strengthen and diversify its defences, investigate incidents and share information.”

Brett Lancaster, Head of Customer Security, said: “These cases show how SWIFT solutions including our Daily Validation Reports tool, our Payment Controls Service and the gpi Stop and Recall facility can all have real, positive impact. They also evidence the importance of implementing security controls and of understanding and mitigating against cyber risks presented by counterparties. This is why more and more customers are turning to SWIFT’s KYC-Security Attestation utility to consume that information.”

The report also reveals:

·       Extended reconnaissance periods: attackers continue to operate ‘silently’ for weeks or months after penetrating a target, learning behaviours and patterns before launching an attack.

·       Timings are shifting: malicious actors previously favoured issuing fraudulent payments outside business hours to avoid detection but have more recently turned this approach on its head, acting during business hours to blend in with legitimate traffic.

·       New payment corridors: the vast majority of fraudulent transactions investigated over the past 15 months used payment corridors (combinations of target and beneficiary banks) that had not been used during the previous 24 months.

The report recommends the:

• Development of new defensive measures: the development and deployment of security-enhancing innovations will help thwart cyber thieves.
• Increase of information sharing: the more information the community shares and the frequency with which it shares, the better chance of avoiding or fending off an attack.
• Adherence to robust cyber security standards: ensuring strict adherence to strong standards and implementing controls is key to prevention and detection.
• Consumption of counterparty cyber security data: users should incorporate the assessment of counterparties’ attestation data against SWIFT’s Customer Security Controls Framework into their risk management and business decision-making processes.

Integral, the technology partner trusted by leading banks, brokers and asset managers to help them outperform their competition in the foreign exchange market, announced today that Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. has deployed a trading app built on the Integral platform to expand mobile trading services to their institutional and corporate customers.

Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. is a bridge between the Arab and Western world. For over 50 years it has championed business leaders and family entrepreneurs. Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. acts as a trusted partner to established businesses, wealthy individuals and ambitious entrepreneurs with strong ties in the MENA region.

Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. is committed to providing a powerful, end-to-end FX solution to its customers and has worked closely with Integral since 2014 to enhance its services with a bespoke single dealer platform for their clients. As customer demand for access to mobile trading grew, Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. again turned to Integral to develop a mobile trading app.

“The banking industry is becoming increasingly mobile, so our customers expect us to deliver the same high level of service and performance in our mobile platform as we do across our other solutions,” said Rani Jabban, Head of Treasury. “We’ve had a strong, longstanding partnership with Integral and were confident that they could extend the BankFX platform to meet our customers’ mobile trading needs. The feedback has been extremely positive.”

“Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. is committed to providing a seamless and complete experience to its FX customers. BankFX is a flexible, cloud-based platform that addresses the entire FX lifecycle, so it is straightforward for us to customize the platform to accommodate their evolving requirements,” said Harpal Sandhu, Integral CEO. “In this case we integrated our mobile app so their customers can trade whenever necessary.”

FICO, a leading analytics company, today announced that it has been named a category leader in the AI in Financial Services, 2019; Market and Vendor Landscape report from Chartis Research. FICO was named a category leader in both AI analytics and packaged AI applications.

A supplementary report, Vendor Analysis: FICO; Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services, 2019, takes a more detailed look at FICO’s rating and capabilities.

For more information: https://www.fico.com/en/chartis-names-fico-category-leader-artificial-intelligence-financial-services

The Vendor Analysis report noted that*: “While the use of AI is now prevalent across many industries and emerging use cases, FIs, in many ways, pioneered the use of AI in commercial applications. FICO was among the first to provide AI tools to FIs, and it has continued to invest in ML R&D focused on helping banks meet ever-more sophisticated customer requirements.”

“A lot of companies talk about AI without delivering — in fact, a recent report by MMC Ventures found that 40 percent of European AI start-ups didn’t actually have any AI," said Stuart Wells, executive vice president and chief technology officer at FICO. “At FICO, we condense decades of banking experience into cloud-based machine learning applications that use the latest Big Data technologies. This Chartis report validates FICO’s deep experience in AI solutions, which have been helping global banks prevent fraud and strengthen consumer loyalty since 1992. With 100+ patents related to machine learning and AI in our portfolio, we continue to lead the field for AI in financial services.”

Many of the FICO AI innovations evaluated for this research will be packaged into FICO^® Falcon^® X, a cloud-based financial crimes solution that will allow banks’ in-house data science teams to blend FICO’s intellectual property with open source machine learning libraries. This collaboration will improve banks’ ability to protect consumer accounts, satisfy regulatory requirements, and achieve greater efficiency in their financial crime detection efforts. The Chartis Vendor Analysis report highlights the impact of FICO’s AI developments in two of these areas – real-time payments and anti-money laundering (AML):

“Real-time payments are rapidly gaining traction in the US, spurred partly by dramatic growth in the use of P2P services and mobile payments. FICO’s ML capabilities play a role in protecting these digital interactions, which are especially susceptible to account takeover. FICO’s AI techniques for real-time payments also apply to aspects of recent Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) and Open Banking requirements in the UK,” the Vendor Analysis report continued. “FICO has also developed AI techniques in response to regulatory encouragement for innovation and efficiency in AML programs. Recently introduced models monitor transactions to detect anomalies, as well as transaction streams that indicate previous SAR filings by the institution.”  

Last year, FICO was named a category leader in the Chartis report on Enterprise Fraud. FICO was also named a category winner in the 2019 Chartis’ RiskTech100^®  report, where FICO won awards in three categories: Innovation, AI, and Cyber Risk Quantification.

Worldline, the European market leader for payment and transaction services, announces the introduction of a dedicated payment solution for online marketplaces that ensures smooth payment processes between all parties in the ecosystem and supports marketplaces in attracting and retaining consumers and merchants alike.

TurnKey Lender, the market’s leading provider of lending automation solutions and services, has received accreditation from IMDA Singapore - a statutory board in the Singapore government. The Accreditation@SGD program is focused on accelerating the growth of innovative technology companies by selecting the best ones and helping them establish credibility in the eyes of local and international partners.

Launched in 2014, this program provides the end-users of digital products with an assurance that the company is reliable and is able to deliver high-quality products and functionality. In order to receive the accreditation, a company has to go through a complex process of evaluation of its technical, financial, and operational stability. The criteria include but aren’t limited to functionality, performance, scalability, security, usability, the reliability of financial information, leadership’s qualifications, services’ and products’ delivery.

The IMDA accreditation is a part of Singapore’s government ongoing efforts to nurture the Cybersecurity ecosystem and enables the accredited companies to expand into international markets easier. The approved solutions are recommended for adoption by government agencies and enterprises.

“This accreditation is a big step in helping TurnKey Lender build trust and establish itself as a reliable partner for government and large enterprise clients,” says Dmitry Voronenko, the CEO and co-founder of TurnKey Lender. “We will keep on working with every bit of dedication we have to achieve fair lending globally. And in the meantime, it’s really good to know that Singapore’s regulating bodies recognize the quality of TurnKey Lender’s products and the expertise of our team!”

Yolt, Europe’s leading third party provider (TPP) of open banking technology in Europe, has announced the appointment of Cristel Lee Leed as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). In a newly created position, Cristel joins the executive team as Pauline Van Brakel takes on her new role as Chief Product Officer (CPO) in Amsterdam. Pauline’s move follows over three successful years as Chief Customer Officer (CCO) and reinforces Yolt’s commitment to putting customers at the heart of product strategy.

Cristel brings over 15 years’ of global marketing experience, having led successful brand launches, scale up’s and transformational marketing efforts on executive teams for high profile brands such as Nutmeg, WWF, giffgaff, Lulu.com, Virgin and Centrica Telecoms operating in the UK, Australian and European markets.

Cristel joins Yolt from Europe’s largest digital wealth manager, Nutmeg, where she was Chief Marketing Officer (interim) during 2018. Cristel led the marketing, communications and acquisition teams at Nutmeg, overseeing growth to over 60k customers and £1.5bn in AUM, product launches such as socially responsible investment portfolios and personal financial advice.

At Yolt, Cristel is responsible for leading the brand’s growth in key global consumer markets by overseeing the strategic planning, development and execution of Yolt’s marketing and customer initiatives for all its B2C and B2B activities.

Her appointment follows Yolt’s European expansion in 2018, which saw the money app enter both Italy and France, and reach over half a million registered users. Most recently the app announced the Yolt Pay Beta feature, their partnership with leading energy comparison platform MoneySuperMarket in the first integration of its kind and a new business proposition – Yolt for Business API – which will see the app increase its offering beyond the consumer to provide a single and secure API for businesses.

Joining Pauline, who is one of the four passionate people who started Yolt in 2016, Cristel’s appointment significantly increases the female representation on Yolt’s executive team. Along with further moves for Leon Muis who takes on a new role as Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Mattijs de Waard as Chief Operations Officer (COO).

Pauline van Brakel, CPO, at Yolt says:

“2018 was a record year for us, and 2019 is set to be even bigger. Hiring quality talent is vital for achieving our goals in becoming the smartest money platform, so I am delighted to welcome Cristel to the Yolt team, as I am confident her wealth of experience and knowledge will be invaluable.

Frank Jan Risseeuw, CEO, added:

Cristel and Pauline’s appointments, coupled with other Executive role changes, reflect our greater ambition to give everyone the power to be smart with their money and I am very excited to work with such a talented team.”

Banks and building societies that are not delivering a user-friendly digital banking experience are at risk of losing customers, most of whom expect digital channels to become more important in how they manage their finances. According to findings from a new survey of 1,000 U.K. bank and building society customers conducted on behalf of Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, customers have high expectations of digital services and their financial services providers.

The research paper, Rising to Meet Customer Expectations, contains additional insights.

The survey found that access to convenient and easy-to-use digital services has a connection to customer loyalty, with 86 percent of respondents saying they would consider leaving their bank or building society if they couldn’t manage their account easily online.

Customer expectations are high, and 82 percent of respondents said they expect every digital experience to be equal to or better than what they receive from other technology providers. Such high expectations may be impacting bank and building society customer satisfaction, as less than a third (28 percent) of respondents are currently satisfied with the online service provided to them.

Delivering Digital Innovation

Customer responses revealed specific areas where user experience could be improved, including accessing and managing current online financial services accounts. Among respondents, 43 percent said their bank or building society’s authentication and sign-in processes were a point of difficulty for them. This highlights the opportunity for banks and building societies to maximise the integration of new technologies, such as biometrics, while leveraging data insights to drive innovation and deliver the seamless, personalised experiences people now expect.

“In an ever-changing financial services landscape, the process of developing and delivering digital experiences in line with customer demands can be a daunting prospect,” said Nick White, vice president, product and marketing, EMEA, Fiserv. “However, neglecting digital channels is a recipe for customer attrition. A well thought out strategy enabled by robust technology is a starting point from which financial relationships can grow.”

Best practices that banks and building societies can utilise to retain and attract customers include:

·       Offer flexibility and control over where and when customers can access their accounts

·       Provide a consistent experience across every channel

·       Simplify authentication so customers can access their account even when they don’t remember their password

·       Leverage digital channels to cross-sell or upsell financial products and services

·       Support customers to organise their financial goals and establish saving habits

Appetite for Financial Literacy

There is a demonstrable appetite from customers for banks and building societies to play a more active role in financial literacy. Customers have shown that they would welcome assistance with better understanding their spending and saving habits, as well as how to manage their money more effectively. To retain and empower customers, banks and building societies can consider introducing online services that also improve financial knowledge. Additionally, more than half (54 percent) of all respondents said they would be more likely to use added services from their current financial services provider if they could sign up and manage them easily online.

In a world moving faster than ever before, Fiserv helps clients deliver solutions in step with the way people live and work today – financial services at the speed of life. Learn more at fiserv.com.

About the Survey

LM Research & Marketing Consultancy conducted the online survey on behalf of Fiserv between 23 January 2019 and 27 January 2019. A sample of 1,000 U.K. residents participated, with 500 customers of banks and 500 customers of building societies surveyed.

Additional Resources

·       Rising to Meet Customer Expectations Research Paper - fiserv.com/DigitalAccess

·       DigitalAccess from Fiserv – fisv.co/DigitalAccessSolution

Gregory Pennington, one of the UK's largest and longest established debt management companies, has integrated an Open Banking solution, provided by Equifax in partnership with AccountScore, into its annual customer review process. The technology automates an often onerous operation for customers, saving time and inconvenience, as well as significantly reducing Gregory Pennington’s operational costs.

Customers of the debt management specialists will now be able to complete the regulatory required annual review, and financial assessment, by simply providing consent for the extraction of transactional data from their current account to populate the financial statement. Before, the review would have been conducted over the telephone and would typically take up to an hour.

Zowie Lees-Howell, Financial Institutions Sales Director at Equifax, said: “This is the first UK use case of Open Banking technology being harnessed for annual reviews by debt management companies. It’s a great example of how Open Banking can be mutually beneficial for the service provider, Gregory Pennington, and the consumer.”

Deborah Ware, Director at Gregory Pennington, said: “We are excited about the introduction of the Open Banking solution that Equifax and AccountScore have provided and are keen to see how it will improve our customer’s journey. It will save them the burden of lengthy calls, and has the additional advantage of generating operational efficiencies associated with the annual review process.”