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News and resources on cyber and physical threats to banks and fintechs worldwide.

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Expert opinions

Kajal Kashyap

Kajal Kashyap Business Development Executive at Itio Innovex Pvt. Ltd.

Understanding ISO 27001: The Backbone of Information Security Management

In today's digital landscape, where data breaches and cyber threats are increasingly prevalent, ensuring the security of sensitive information is more important than ever. ISO 27001, the global standard for information security management systems (ISMS), provides a comprehensive framework for protecting information assets from a wide range of threa...

/security /regulation

Prashant Bhardwaj

Prashant Bhardwaj Innovation Manager at Crif

Scammed in Silence: Unveiling the Digital Fraud Crisis in Rural Areas

In our earlier conversations, Amit Gaur, a bank manager in a rural area of Haryana, often lamented the decreasing foot traffic in banks, noting that it was almost a day off after lunch hours as customers increasingly turned to digital transactions. Recently, however, he shared alarming insights about the rising tide of digital fraud affecting his

/security /crime Transaction Fraud Systems and Analysis

James O'Sullivan

James O'Sullivan CEO at Nuke from Orbit

Why Mobile Security Must Take Centre Stage in Banking by 2025

Mobile phones are integral to modern life. An overwhelming 98% of 16 to 54-year-olds own a smartphone, and 59% of workers favour their phones over laptops or desktops for running their businesses. This reliance is particularly evident in financial services. Research shows that more than three-quarters (78%) of mobile users access banking service...

/security /crime

Erica Andersen

Erica Andersen Marketing at smartR AI

AI Guardrails: Ensuring Safe and Ethical AI Development with SLMs

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) brings with it tremendous potential benefits, but also potential risks. To ensure AI is developed and used responsibly, the concept of AI guardrails has emerged as a crucial framework. Private Small Language Models (SLMs) would also appear to be very helpful in building AI guardra What are AI

/ai /security Artificial Intelligence and Financial Services

Erica Andersen

Erica Andersen Marketing at smartR AI

The Future of AI: Combating Bias and Ensuring Accuracy with Small Language Models

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been rapidly evolving, with large language models (LLMs) like GPT-X, LLama, and Claude taking center stage. However, a recent survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value has highlighted concerns around accuracy and bias in AI, with nearly half of CEOs (49%) expressing worries about these issues. In fact, the su

/ai /security Artificial Intelligence and Financial Services

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Research

Impact Study

2024 Fraud Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Beyond

How generative AI is boosting fraud protection in an increasingly complex environment. As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of institutions to secure data and systems. Over 2024, the fraud landscape has been complex, and organisations must push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining a high security bar as the availability and democratisation of AI increases as we're going into 2025. The tidal wave of incoming regulation in the financial sector is an aspect that will help banking and insurance companies to safeguard their customers and data in the best way possible. Yet regulation alone does not address fraud – it’s up to individual organisations to leverage the potential of technology, and review their solutions, processes, and thus ensure compliance and safety. As fraud and regulation increase in the space, technology is one of the key factors that will help banks and insurance companies to address these increased fraud risks. Generative AI enables organisations to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, and combining these capabilities with carrier network insights can not only help them significantly reduce authentication fraud, but also ensure regulatory compliance. This impact study, produced in association with AWS and Vonage, examines the current fraud landscape across financial services, banking, and insurance, highlighting how generative AI and network APIs can help prevent fraud while enhancing the customer experience. Explore: Fraud trends in 2024 The impact of regulation Why data is the new gold How organisations can innovate with generative AI Best practices

355 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Embedded Finance in Africa 2025

Embedded finance is changing the payment landscape in Africa. The question now is: what will it take for embedded finance to truly scale across Africa? The global embedded finance market is set to grow beyond $228 billion by 2028 according to Juniper Research. As this market matures and consumer confidence in the technology grows, this will likely prove to be a significant chunk of global financial services. In Africa, this emerging trend has the potential to unlock new economic opportunities. As a less mature market, it is not as hindered by legacy payments systems, making it ripe for payment innovation from embedded finance. It has the potential to reshape the continent’s current payments landscape, broaden innovation opportunities, and drive financial inclusion. As a market Africa is very adaptable to different technologies, and embracing of newer, more agile services. A lot of the population to the majority of their banking through their mobile phones, making embedded finance fit seamlessly into financial worlds of the populace. Yet there are many factors which will alter and develop the ability for embedded finance to take hold. This Finextra report, sponsored by Kora, received contributions from Binance, Indelible Inc., Mojaloop Foundation, and Nikulipe. It explores:  Making embedded cross-border payments work in Africa; Unlocking the opportunities of embedded e-commerce in the African market; Embedded finance: Encouraging African financial inclusion; Why personalisation in embedded finance is the next step for African fintech; Regulating Africa to encourage embedded finance innovation.

281 downloads

Impact Study

Adding GenAI To Your Fraud Prevention Strategy

We explore the numerous benefits of generative AI for fighting fraud.  In an instant payment, cross-border world, fraud is more nefarious and prevalent than ever. Recent research shows that worldwide, APP (Authorised Push Payment) fraud now represents 75% of all digital banking fraud on a dollar-value basis. By 2026, losses are expected to reach $5.25 billion – revealing that APP fraud is one of the biggest threats to financial institutions (FIs) globally.  The next pre-emptive step in the fight against fraud is generative AI (GenAI), which uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate new content like text, audio, video and even new computer code. While GenAI is still in the fledgling stages of adoption within fraud prevention, it will soon become a true differentiator.  But how exactly are scammers deploying AI to their advantage? What are the best ways to incorporate GenAI into a fraud prevention strategy? How should consumer privacy be managed? This impact study answers these questions and casts an eye over the current fraud landscape, the regulatory implications, and the vital role of innovation.  This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Outseer, explores:  The evolution of scams;  The role of AI;  Technology and the impact of generative AI;  How to embed AI in the best way possible;  Addressing regulatory challenges and concerns;  And more. 

411 downloads

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FinextraTV

Embracing the Shift: Instant Payments and Infrastructure Transformation

Michael Engel, Managing Director & VP of Banking Software at Diebold Nixdorf, highlights the growing shift from traditional to instant payments, driven by increasing demand for speed and agility in transactions. While methods like SEPA and the digital euro gain momentum, the challenge of integrating these with legacy systems persists. Engel emphasises the importance of affordable, cloud-native, microservices-based platforms to boost scalability and security, especially in e-commerce. Success stories show banks launching new services within weeks, a dramatic improvement from the previous six to nine months. As consumer expectations rise, financial institutions must balance innovation with reliability.

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Long reads

Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton Contributing Editor at Finextra Research

Cyber-attack case studies: Data, costs, and solutions

Invite 165 or so treasury managers and other financial leaders and practitioners in a room, tell them you’re going to put them through a cyber-attack simulation, and advise that their actions will directly influence the exercise’s ultimate outcomes. Will they agree to do it? Of course they will! Especially since, according to an IBM study cited...

Níamh Curran

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

How to pick a 3-D Secure provider

Amid increasing ecommerce sales, changing consumer expectations, and regulatory shifts, payments issuers and processors need to continually evolve to decrease risks from card not present (CNP) transactions and customer authentication process. As the number of online payments grows, organisations are at increased risk of loss as a result of CNP frau...

Retired Member

Retired Member

How FSI companies can leverage AI to enhance cybersecurity

With generative AI, UK financial services companies have an opportunity to unlock new possibilities through innovation, which can help them boost their resilience amid increasing cybersecurity threats. This will help them to better serve customers, increase growth and contribute to the country becoming an AI global leader. The financial services i...