MasterCard's Decision Intelligence goes beyond current risk assessment profiling by assessing, scoring and learning from each transaction. It examines how a specific account is used over time to detect normal and abnormal shopping spending behaviors, using account information like customer value segmentation, risk profiling, location, merchant, device data, time of day, and type of purchase made.

The data is fed back to the issuer and used to adjust risk scores for the next transaction.

Earlier this year, the card scheme rolled out MasterCard IQ, an authorisation and assurance toolkit designed to provide deeper insights into cardholder spending habits in a split-second. Authorization IQ uses the unique and historical behavior of the card to predict and assess risk against a current transaction. The Assurance kit enables the exchange of information from the merchant about the particular circumstances of a transaction to help provide a more nuanced risk score.

Research by Javelin shows that the value of false declines per year has hit $118 billion, more than 13 times the total amount lost annually to actual card fraud ($9 billion). Not only are such refusals more likely to hit more affluent consumers who spend more on big ticket items, they also have a negative rebound in customer attitude towards the bank and merchant.

“We are solving a major consumer pain point of being falsely declined when trying to make a purchase,” sayus Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise risk and security, Mastercard. “By using AI technology on our global network, we’re helping financial institutions and merchants improve approval rates - and the consumer experience.”