Emergence of Financial Criminality 4.0 Demands Employment of Sophisticated Technologies
In the face of a rapidly evolving financial crime landscape, top risk and security specialists from Standard Chartered, Nium, and GBG are advocating for an innovation imperative. This shift comes as Singapore prepares to launch Cosmic, a data sharing platform aimed at tackling money laundering, in the first half of 2023.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is collaborating with six major commercial banks, including DBS, OCBC, UOB, SCB, Citibank, and HSBC, on the Cosmic platform. Singapore's focus is on three key financial crime risks in the commercial banking sector. The platform will enable financial institutions to share information on customers or transactions, where they cross material risk thresholds.
The level of sophistication of financial crimes has skyrocketed, with criminals leveraging AI and ML to mechanically gather and process data for use in automated attacks. This increase in complexity makes it increasingly challenging for financial institutions to stay ahead.
Dev Dhiman, Managing Director of GBG's APAC, highlights the current era as marked by very smart technology, enabling fraudsters to increase the level of sophistication in their schemes. To effectively fight fraud and minimize customer impact, it's necessary to utilize data and customize approaches at the individual level.
Victor Apps, Head of Fraud Risk at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, emphasizes the importance of customer profiling to detect fraudulent activities. Raj Viswanathan, Chief Information Security Officer of Nium, underscores the need to augment foundation controls with innovative technologies to improve them, not replace the human element.
The proliferation of digital technologies and shift to online channels has led to an increase in financial crime, with undefined geographies and sophisticated attacks. This trend is not unique to Singapore; in Malaysia, the IDGuard service, a collaborative platform to combat application fraud, has been onboarded by banks including Maybank, RHB, CIMB, Alliance Bank, and Ambank.
Between July 2020 and March 2021, CTOS IDGuard successfully identified and prevented potential fraud losses of up to MYR 50 million (US$12 million) in various loan applications. However, Nium has experienced a significant increase in attempted attacks and types of attacks over the past year.
Criminals are innovating at a fast pace, making it challenging for banks to keep up due to red tape, costs, and time required for installing new surveillance systems and fraud controls. Increased collaboration and data sharing between stakeholders can lead to better policing of financial crime and early detection of fraud.
In conclusion, the financial crime landscape is evolving rapidly, necessitating a shift towards innovation and collaboration. As financial institutions adapt to these changes, they can better protect their customers and assets from increasingly sophisticated threats.
Read also:
- Upcoming iPhone Model: What We Understand Thus Far
- Chinese Medicine: An Overview of Traditional remedies and healing techniques from China
- Severe Norovirus Infections: Exploring Potential Health Complications
- Bangladesh confronted a health predicament, marked by outbreaks of dengue fever and chikungunya.
