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The Real Story Behind False Declines and How Wibmo Trident FRM Secures Transactions 

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In today’s fast-evolving digital economy, businesses rely heavily on seamless online transactions to drive growth and customer satisfaction. However, false declines — legitimate transactions mistakenly flagged as fraudulent — have become a growing concern. These incidents lead to customer frustration and significant revenue loss. As fraudsters continue to innovate, businesses must deploy advanced security measures that both combat fraud and minimize false declines.  In this blog, we explore the causes and impact of false declines and how Wibmo’s Trident FRM (Fraud Risk Management) system helps businesses reduce these risks while providing secure, frictionless payment experiences.  What Are False Declines?  False declines, also called false positives, occur when valid transactions are incorrectly rejected due to fraud detection systems being overly cautious. These rejections can be triggered by unusual spending patterns, technical errors, or overly strict fraud detection algorithms. While these systems aim to block fraudulent activity, they can sometimes hinder genuine transactions.  In 2023, false declines have been an expensive issue for businesses, costing global eCommerce firms an estimated $81 billion in lost revenue. This highlights the need for more advanced fraud detection systems that balance security with customer convenience.  The Impact on Businesses and Consumers  False declines affect both businesses and consumers alike. For businesses, the immediate loss of revenue from rejected transactions is just the beginning. Customer churn is a serious consequence, as 47% of customers who experience a false decline may not return, leading to long-term revenue loss. Additionally, false declines contribute to operational inefficiencies as businesses deal with disputes and chargebacks, further affecting profitability.  For consumers, having a legitimate transaction rejected can damage trust and loyalty. The frustration caused by a false decline often leads to customers turning to competitors, affecting future engagement.  How Wibmo Trident FRM Reduces False Declines  To address these challenges, Wibmo’s Trident FRM (Fraud Risk Management) provides a sophisticated solution that combines machine learning, real-time data analysis, and behavioural analytics to accurately assess transaction risk.  Key Features of Wibmo Trident FRM:  Trident FRM continuously monitors user behaviour, detecting anomalies and signs of potential fraud. This advanced fraud detection helps block fraudulent transactions while allowing legitimate ones to be processed without interruption.  Unlike traditional fraud detection systems, Wibmo Trident FRM adapts to emerging fraud patterns. It fine-tunes authentication requirements based on transaction risk, ensuring a balance between fraud prevention and customer experience.  Leveraging AI-powered data analytics, Wibmo Trident FRM offers real-time fraud detection, blocking fraudulent transactions as they occur. This ensures that businesses can process legitimate transactions smoothly while preventing unauthorized activities.  Combating Online Fraud  The global rise of eCommerce has seen an increase in online fraud, with $48 billion in eCommerce fraud losses globally in 2023. Businesses must adopt proactive fraud prevention strategies to avoid these significant financial losses. Wibmo Trident FRM provides a robust solution that not only protects businesses but also reduces the frustration caused by false declines.  Best Practices for Fraud Prevention:  Benefits of Wibmo Trident FRM  Wibmo Trident FRM allows businesses to strike the right balance between security and customer experience. By reducing false declines, businesses can protect their revenue and build long-term customer trust and loyalty. Its adaptive approach ensures that customers enjoy a seamless and secure payment journey, even in a high-risk online environment.  Customer Experience Impact:  With fewer interruptions and smoother transactions, Wibmo Trident FRM enhances the overall customer experience, helping businesses maintain customer loyalty while ensuring secure payments.  Conclusion  As online fraud continues to rise, it’s crucial for businesses to adopt advanced fraud management solutions. False declines can cause both financial losses and customer dissatisfaction, making it essential to minimize them through intelligent risk management. Wibmo Trident FRM offers an effective solution that provides real-time, adaptive fraud prevention while ensuring legitimate transactions are processed smoothly. 

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Wibmo Protect — Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication Solution

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has embarked on a transformative journey by proposing a Principle-Based Framework for the authentication of digital transactions. This pioneering initiative underscores the RBI’s commitment to fostering a secure, seamless, and customer-centric digital payments ecosystem. The primary objective of this framework is to propel the adoption of alternative authentication mechanisms, transcending the traditional SMS OTP paradigm. By embracing innovative authentication solutions, the RBI seeks to elevate the customer experience while fortifying the security infrastructure of digital payments. Furthermore, this strategic move is poised to empower businesses to embark on a journey of innovation, enabling them to explore cutting-edge solutions while upholding the highest standards of security and integrity. In essence, the Principle-Based Authentication Framework heralds a new era of digital transactions, characterized by enhanced security, heightened user experience, and unparalleled innovation. Challenges with OTP Authentication: Traditional SMS OTPs, while prevalent, present significant limitations and risks. They heavily rely on mobile service providers, are susceptible to interception, and contribute to transaction delays and failures, leading to user frustration and financial losses. Limitations of Traditional SMS-Based OTP Authentication: – Reliance on Mobile Service Providers: SMS OTPs are entirely dependent on mobile service providers, making them susceptible to network coverage issues and unable to support offline mode. – Inadequate Support for Cross-Border Transactions: Due to network dependencies, SMS OTPs face challenges in facilitating cross-border transactions and international access. – High Transaction Authentication Failure Rate: In the current scenario, the authentication failure rate for card transactions using SMS OTPs averages between 5% to 8%, primarily due to network dependencies. – Vulnerability to Cyber Threats: SMS OTPs are prone to interception, phishing, MITM attacks, and sim swapping, lacking robust protection for authorized access. – Rising Instances of Fraud: Cybercrimes, including fraud cases involving SMS OTPs, have surged, with approximately 1.1 million fraud cases registered in 2023, amounting to Rs 7,488.6 crore. Additionally, UPI fraud cases reached over 95,000 in the 2022–23 fiscal year. – User Experience Disruptions: Delays or delivery failures in SMS OTPs disrupt the user experience, leading to frustration and contributing to merchant conversion losses. – Increased Operational Costs: Constant intervention is required to manage authentication experiences across various channels, leading to additional costs. The average SMS cost per transaction is 12 paise, which escalates based on the chosen channels. Wibmo Protect: A Revolutionary Solution: Wibmo Protect, a cutting-edge platform, aligns seamlessly with the RBI’s framework. Utilizing a risk-based contextual authentication approach, it leverages machine learning and deep data analytics to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions in real-time. Contextual authentication further enhances security, enabling swift and secure payments without OTPs. Key Benefits of Wibmo Protect: Wibmo Protect offers a multitude of benefits, including: – Fraud Detection & Prevention – Dynamic Risk-based Authentication – Preference-based authentication with multiple modes – Multi-channel support for various transaction types – Reduced chargebacks and increased revenue growth – Merchant opt-out feature – Enhanced consumer authentication experience Wibmo Protect combines three powerful modules: 1. Access Control Server (Accosa ACS): A holistic payment authentication platform integrated with an intelligent risk engine. 2. Enterprise Trident FRM: A comprehensive cross-channel, self-learning risk assessment engine. 3. Tridentity: A multifactor out-of-band authentication solution offering secure, password less authentication. Wibmo Protect emerges as a game-changer in digital transaction security. By embracing innovative technologies and adaptive authentication methods, it sets new standards for security, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. With its comprehensive suite of modules, Wibmo Protect stands as a beacon of trust and reliability in the evolving landscape of digital transactions. Through continuous innovation and commitment to security, Wibmo paves the way for a secure and seamless digital future. Author: Anand K Khanna, Product Manager — Fraud & Risk Management Wibmo A PayU/Naspers FinTech Company Digital Payment, Fraud Detection, Multi-Factor Authentication, Payment Security, RBI

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Empowering Digital Transactions: A Comprehensive Guide to Payment Gateways and Wibmo Areion’s Innovation

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The dynamic landscape of digital payments has posed challenges and opportunities for stakeholders across the financial ecosystem. From merchants and payment facilitators to issuers and payment gateways, each entity grapples with considerations of customer convenience, operational costs, compliance, security, and value-added services. This comprehensive guide explores the critical decision of selecting the right payment gateway, emphasizing the importance of compliance, security, transparent costing, and value-added services. Additionally, we delve into the innovative features of Wibmo Areion, a cutting-edge payment gateway that redefines the digital payment experience. Understanding the Landscape: The payment ecosystem operates as a connected network of platforms, where the considerations for selecting a payment gateway vary based on the role of the player. The two primary providers of payment gateway services to merchants are acquiring banks or intermediaries such as Payment Aggregators, Payment Facilitators, or PSPs. Table Stakes and Prerequisites: Before embarking on the payment gateway journey, certain prerequisites must be addressed. Compliance with supported payment schemes and robust technological infrastructure, complying with standards like PCI DSS and NPCI for UPI, is crucial for a seamless and secure digital payment experience. Key Business Considerations: Cost per Transaction (MDR): Derived from the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), transparent costing is complex and varies based on factors like merchant category code, payment limit, and payment instrument type. Transaction Success Rate (SR): Paramount for all stakeholders, payment gateways strive to offer the highest success rate through innovative payment flows and partnerships. Fraud Management: A robust fraud management platform is essential to minimize chargebacks and secure payments, especially in online transactions. Billing, Reporting, and Dashboards: Transparent billing and reporting are crucial for stakeholders to gain clear insights into transactions through simple and informative dashboards. Differentiators and Value-Added Services: Beyond core capabilities, payment gateways seek to differentiate themselves through value-added services: Frictionless Check-Out: Using biometrics for seamless authentication. Loyalty Programs: Allowing customers to earn and redeem loyalty points at checkout. EMI Options: Providing affordable instalment options at checkout. Diverse Payment Methods: Supporting additional payment methods such as wallets, net banking, and local payment methods. Unveiling the Future: Exploring Wibmo Areion Payment Gateway In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital payments, having a robust and versatile payment gateway is crucial for businesses seeking seamless transactions and enhanced customer experiences. Wibmo, a leading player in the fintech industry, introduces its cutting-edge payment gateway — Wibmo Areion. Let’s delve into the features, benefits, and potential impact of this innovative solution. The Rise of Wibmo Areion: Wibmo Areion represents a significant leap forward in the world of payment gateways, offering advanced features and capabilities designed to meet the dynamic needs of modern businesses. From security enhancements to a user-friendly interface, Wibmo Areion aims to redefine the digital payment experience. Key Features: Enhanced Security Protocols: Prioritizing transaction security with state-of-the-art protocols and compliance with PCI DSS standards. Seamless User Experience: Commitment to a smooth and seamless user experience for quick and hassle-free transactions. Adaptive Fraud Management: Employing adaptive fraud management tools to stay ahead of evolving fraud tactics and minimize chargebacks. Multi-Channel Support: Recognizing the diverse nature of modern transactions, Wibmo Areion offers support for various channels, including e-commerce, mobile payments, and in-app transactions. Flexible Integration Options: Providing businesses with flexible integration options through Rest-based APIs, ensuring a hassle-free implementation process. Benefits for Businesses: Enhanced Security: Instilling trust among customers by providing a secure and reliable payment environment. Improved Customer Experience: Contributing to an enhanced customer experience, leading to higher satisfaction and retention rates. Reduced Fraud-related Costs: Minimizing the financial impact of fraudulent activities, reducing operational compliance costs. Scalability and Multi-Channel Reach: Scaling with businesses as they grow and ensuring support for various platforms and channels. Efficient Integration: The flexible integration options make the onboarding process smoother, allowing businesses to quickly adopt and benefit from advanced features. The selection of a payment gateway is a nuanced decision that traverses various dimensions based on the role of the payment player. As stakeholders navigate this landscape, the emphasis on compliance, security, transparent costing, and value-added services will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of digital transactions. Let us work together and ensure that we, as one family, soar to new heights in the coming year. None of this would have been possible without each one of you. Your dedication and hard work have been the driving force behind our success. As we bid farewell to this incredible year, we express our deepest gratitude. We look forward to seeing you grow with us in the coming years. Author: Ravi Battula, Vice President- Merchant Acquiring Business Wibmo A PayU/Naspers FinTech Company Card Payment, Online Payments, Payment Gateway, Payment Processing, Payments Technology

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UPI Fraud Trends and Their Possible Mitigation

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With over 2 billion transactions worth over INR 4.5 trillion processed every month, India’s United Payment Interface (UPI) has revolutionized the digital payment ecosystem. UPI has been emerging as the most preferred payment method among Indians. However, at the same time, we are witnessing a rise in fraudulent transactions in recent times. A total of 1,46,495 unified payments interface (UPI) fraudulent activities were reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) during the first and second quarters of 2022, as per the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Up until now, banks and financial institutions have predominantly relied on educating consumers against fraud. But, in cases of fraud, the consumer is at the mercy of the grievance process, which adversely affects the consumer experience and dents customer loyalty. Fraud Trends and Their Possible Mitigation Impersonating Sellers and Customer Care It is more of a habit to google customer care contacts when facing issues with our online purchases. Fraudsters are flooding the internet with fake customer care details to lure in consumers. After gaining the trust of gullible customers over the phone, refund collect requests are shared via QR codes, SMS links, and so on. Financial institutions can integrate with technological solutions that detect and alert the customer in the event that a payment is made over the phone. Spoofed VPA IDs In the name of disaster relief or support, fraudsters created multiple spoofed VPA IDs that are remarkably similar to the original ones. In recent times, we witnessed an unprecedented rise in VPA IDs, similar to the PM Cares Fund. Maintaining a list of suspicious keywords such as support, relief, care, disaster, army, minister,” etc. and running risk rules over transactions being made to VPA IDs containing high-risk keywords have the potential to curb fraudulent transactions. Screen mirroring apps and malware Through malicious links, fraudsters get consumers to download screen-sharing or remote-access apps or malware. Once installed, the fraudster gains access to confidential UPI details, which are then used in combination with other modus operandi, such as SIM-swapping. Payment apps should have the capability to detect potential malicious apps already downloaded on the device and restrict payments from going through. Collect Request Through classified ads, fraudsters initiate conversation with sellers they are impersonating as potential buyers. Creating a sense of urgency, the fraudster intends to make a quick payment without much negotiation and sends a collect request, sometimes in the form of a QR code. The VPA IDs used by fraudsters are generally gibberish and at times have numbers or alphabets in sequence. Banks or financial institutions’ apps should have the capability to detect such patterns on beneficiary VPA handles. UPI has made digital payments more accessible and convenient for millions of people in India, and it is expected to continue to play a significant role in India’s digital payments ecosystem in the coming years. With continued efforts of educating consumers against frauds, banks and financial institutions should leverage the technological advancements against the mushrooming UPI frauds. Author: Sujit Kumar Mahato, Product Manager Wibmo A PayU/Naspers FinTech Company BaaS

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Regulator asking your bank to migrate from SMS-based OTPs to more secure authentication options? Use the opportunity to derive multiple benefits

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Central Banks are proactively taking steps to reduce the risk of banking/financial fraud The phrase “two sides of the same coin” applies to the world of digital banking and financial services as well. Internet/mobile based banking capabilities have undoubtedly enabled convenience and speed for consumers and reduced costs for service providers. Simultaneously, however, there has also been a steady rise in digital frauds and scams around the world. New ways of scamming consumers are constantly emerging because omni-channel digital first banking has given perpetrators more options based on how banking transactions are authenticated. Central banks around the world have regularly been raising the bar for digital security within their jurisdictions, given their responsibility for orderly conduct of a country’s banking and financial services system and ensuring the highest levels of consumer safety and protection. Individual banks and fintech players are proactively integrating new technologies and protocols to provide customers with the additional security of multi-factor authentication. About a month ago, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM, the Malaysian central bank) announced that banks operating in that country needed to adopt authentication methods for online activities (opening accounts, making payments and other transactions) that go beyond SMS-based OTPs (One Time Passwords). BNM’s new measures also cover changes to default customer account settings, cooling off periods for new accounts, using just one device for authentication, etc. The rules pertaining to the detection of scams/frauds and the triggering of blocking actions are also being tightened. While many of the steps will kick in after suspicious transactions are detected, what is essential for banks is to strengthen measures that can minimize the occurrence of frauds and scams through superior digital authentication and the detection of risky transactions. OTPs and two-factor authentication are no longer adequate Over the past years, OTPs have become ubiquitous and deeply embedded in our lives as the primary means to authenticate all banking (and many other) transactions. But the two-factor authentication provided by OTPs is no longer enough to provide customers with the desired levels of safety and protection. Authentication is based on entering the 4 or 6 digits sent by the service provider to the customer’s mobile number. It does not verify the identity of the person who has entered the OTP. This means anyone with access to the OTP can easily impersonate a customer and complete transactions without the genuine customer being aware until it is too late. Think about three commonplace scenarios that customers might routinely face: a lost or stolen mobile phone, an unlocked phone on their office desk while they briefly step out, or a phone given for repairs (where unscrupulous staff members have the chance to copy/access personal data). In each of these situations, unauthorized persons can easily access OTPs and other transaction-related messages sent by banks to the phone and essentially “authenticate” transactions that will go through as legitimate transactions initiated/approved by you. If such impersonation risks are not bad enough, think about phishing frauds and scams where users are induced to click on links that they believe have come from their bank or other service providers via SMS. A world of non-banking digital payment apps and platforms gives fraudsters even more opportunities to scam customers by voluntarily giving out information that is needed to complete unauthorized financial transactions. In such a high-risk environment, online authentication must necessarily be made a more rigorous and fool-proof process that is inherently harder to circumvent. Rather than relying on an OTP that can be entered by anyone (and not just the genuine customer), banks must adopt authentication protocols that use multiple data points that can be collectively used to establish customer identity and authenticity of transactions. Multi-factor authentication can make a big difference to the reliability of your authentication and hence customer experience Banks need to balance secure and reliable authentication with the associated costs and impact on customer experience. Working even when there is mobile network latency (or lack of network coverage) is another requirement. Compliance with the bank’s own security norms and complete adherence to prevailing regulatory requirements also needs to be considered. The solution must be such that it can be used seamlessly with mobile banking as well as internet banking. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions tick all these boxes. A robust MFA solution uses a combination of three distinct sets of data points for authentication: · Knowledge- what the customer knows (e.g., password, security question); · Ownership/access- what the user has (e.g., mobile device, USB token); and · Inherence- something that is inherent to the customer (e.g., fingerprint or other biometrics) A world-class MFA solution must provide banks (and other organizations) the option to authenticate customers and transactions based on a variety of authentication touchpoints that cater to customer preferences and risk profiles. It must be used either on a standalone basis or be capable of easily being integrated with a bank’s existing assets. It must support Out of Band (OOB) authentication- which means that the channel used for authentication must be distinct from the one used to sign in or perform a transaction. Ideally, the OOB authentication element must reside in the customer’s registered mobile phone, making it easier to leverage ownership- and inherence-based data points as well for authentication. The MFA solution must be compatible with EMV 3-D Secure and 3-D Secure 1.0 protocols and support CNP transactions as well. Wibmo’s Tridentity is an MFA solution that is designed to address the above needs and deliver the above capabilities. It supports authentication based on Push notifications, Offline OTP, and Biometrics. It is available as a simple SDK or downloadable as an Android/iOS app. Tridentity is compliant with the EU’s PSD2 initiative. Please click on https://www.wibmo.co/tridentity/ for more information on Wibmo’s Tridentity solution and how it can help your bank in Malaysia or elsewhere. If you have specific questions and would like to speak to one of our experts, write to us at sales@wibmo.com. Author: Edward Chien, Director- Sales, South-East Asia Wibmo A PayU/Naspers FinTech Company Authentication, Multi-Factor Authentication, Online Payments, Out of

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Importance of Fraud and Risk Management Solutions for Financial Institutions

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Technology and trust must go hand in hand Technologies are undoubtedly transformative for businesses and their customers. But to fully deliver the promised benefits, technologies must consciously build trust amongst all legitimate users and stakeholders. Trustworthiness is becoming critical by the day in an increasingly digital world because of the rising incidence of online fraud. Just as quality at the source is a mantra for manufacturing companies, the detection, and prevention of fraudulent transactions as soon as they originate is important for banks and financial institutions. At the same time, customer convenience has to be balanced out. Regulators expect banks to enhance their digital abilities to detect/prevent frauds/crimes Regulators play a key role in ensuring the safe, smooth, and efficient functioning of the banking and financial systems within their individual jurisdictions. As such, central banks worldwide have begun to tighten various regulatory requirements in order to reduce the risk of fraud made possible by technological or process loopholes in the systems used by banks and other financial institutions. In March 2022, the Bangko Sentral NG Pilipinas (“BSP”, the central bank of the Philippines), published amendments to its “Regulations on Information Technology Risk Management” with the specific objective of enhancing customer protection. To ensure that digital banking channels are made safer and more reliable, the BSP requires banks operating in the Philippines to implement automated and real-time fraud monitoring and detection systems capable of identifying and blocking suspicious or fraudulent online transactions. Starting 1 September 2022, banks must be prepared to show BSP their action plans; and full compliance with a readiness plan is expected by 31 December 2022. While the Fraud Management systems implemented must commensurate with the bank’s operations and the scope of its digital platforms, BSP does expect that the solutions that banks put in place will, at a minimum, deliver the following capabilities: · Monitoring, collecting, and analyzing transaction data arising from all physical and digital banking and non-banking channels; · Integration with the bank’s Anti Money Laundering (AML) systems to provide a more robust and comprehensive mechanism to prevent financial crimes (and not just detect them); · Building customer profiles and analyzing behavior to detect frauds based on changes in usage patterns; and · Secure scalability to handle growing transaction volumes. FRM solutions must give robust Fraud detection and prevention capabilities without damaging customer relationships Frauds and other operational risks not only damage customer confidence in individual banks (and the banking system as a whole) but can also lead to financial losses (reparations, penalties) and harm your brand/reputation. Clearly, the costs of not having a state-of-the-art Fraud & Risk Management System (FRMS) are high. While there are many FRMS solutions out there, not all of them are equally efficacious. This is because each one uses different protocols to detect and analyze risks and thereafter, determine further courses of action. Wibmo’s Trident FRM platform offers multiple advantages Wibmo’s Trident is an enterprise fraud and risk management platform that uses advanced authentication protocols and ML-driven statistical models. Our platform makes approval/ challenge/ decline decisions based on rigorous, real-time assessment of more than 100 parameters related to the device, user, and transaction (e.g., merchant, location, IP address, time of the transaction, value, etc.). This Risk-Based Authentication (RBA) approach provides a more robust and reliable assessment of the risk of every individual transaction. The omnichannel capability of the platform is an added advantage wherein the bank’s operations team gets a central view of their customer’s transactions across channels For banks operating in the Philippines, Trident can ensure full compliance with BSP’s amended regulations within the stipulated timeframe. However, irrespective of where your bank operates, there are many other reasons why Trident could be the right FRMS solution for your bank: · Many banks rely on disparate legacy systems and point solutions for specific functions (e.g., AML, branch-based KYC transactions, etc.). Integrating data from myriad systems is neither easy nor efficient; the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Therefore, our risk management platform is API-driven. What is more, it uses 360o degree customer data and insights to detect anomalous behaviors that might indicate fraud or misuse. · Trident is sensitive to the need for banks to deliver a seamless, speedy, and superior customer experience for every legitimate transaction; this minimizes customer friction– key to building loyalty and enhancing lifetime value. · Customers (and fraudsters) can use multiple channels to effect transactions (e.g., 3DS, mobile payment, ATM/POS, online retail/corporate banking). The FRMS solution your bank adopts must be able to function equally effectively- and seamlessly- across channels (to handle situations where customers legitimately switch channels). Our platform uses AI/ML to safeguard customers, merchants, card issuers, and networks in an omnichannel environment. Sometimes, frauds are perpetrated at the merchant level (e.g., by employees misusing customer cards for fraudulent transactions). The Trident platform can detect and prevent such misuse as well. Trident enables full compliance with FATF and AML-CFT, thus helping to prevent financial crimes. · Your bank works with various card networks (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, etc.). Trident is compatible with all networks; it gives you get a network-agnostic RBA score thus strengthening your bank’s overall ability to detect, prevent and manage fraud risks. · Trident can be fully deployed on Cloud, thus assuring high availability and scalability so that 100% of your bank’s transactions are processed in real-time to validate the authenticity and assess risk before completion. · Our FRMS platforms are rules-driven. This lets your bank respond quickly to emerging threats with the help of “quick rules” and “expression rules” for more complex threat scenarios. The bank will also be equipped with Rule Wizard wherein the operations team can build rules on the fly · Quick investigation and resolution of transactions are important to ensure customer satisfaction, and regulatory reporting/compliance as well as enhancing the bank’s preparedness to prevent future false positives. Efficient and workflow-driven case management capabilities built into our platform allow investigators to track, investigate and resolve transactions quickly. This also reduces your bank’s operational expenses– a major benefit gave the pressure on margins. · Banks that adopt

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Why is Biometric Authentication becoming the headline in the world of Digital Payments?

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The last decade has witnessed a progressive adoption of technology in almost all the industry. Few industries like banking and fintech have embraced the technology to grow in leaps and bounds. The revolutionizing spread of internet has ushered in an incredible increase in the number of the users and in turn the addressable market. The hitherto latent yet humongous body of rural population is today enabled with fintech services like online payment and transaction and even Ecom. The one word which has propelled the whole population into the digital payment however is rather old fashioned -TRUST Let’s dive deeper with an example. When a small business owner from a village in Bihar pays a vendor residing in another state, he needs be assured that the payment would indeed be done. Similarly, a migrant labourer, slogging in the southern state need to believe that his hard earned money is indeed going to reach his family in a matter of minutes if not seconds. However both the people also need assurances that it would be paid only to the intended parties and not to anyone else! Authentication: The foundation of trust in the digital payment space Authentication is used most commonly to assure the consumers of reliability. However, the question remains if the authentication mechanisms used currently produce the highest levels of trustworthiness. Let’s delve into the circumstances where multifactor authentication is the best option. The following two out of the three ways have proved to be a strong medium for payment authentications: · Possession: for example, a documented identify or device, etc. · Knowledge: for example, a password or secret, etc. · Inherence: for example, their fingerprint, hand, face, etc. History of Biometrics — An evolved tool used in payment securities Although biometrics go way back into human history, the contemporary commercial usage of biometric authentication began in the mid-nineteenth century using fingerprints by William James Herschel, a British administrator in India. Biometric authentication gained popularity among consumers and service providers with the rising usage of feature-rich smartphones and other devices enabled with high-resolution cameras. The instant gratification was stoked with the biometric authentication as it is based on the biological traits which are unique to every individual and cannot be faked. One of the most widely used examples of biometric usage is that of Aadhaar card in the Indian Market: All Indian residents are given an Aadhaar number, which is a 12-digit unique identification number. This figure is derived from their biographic and biometric data (a photograph, ten fingerprints, two iris scans). The concept was originally related to government subsidies and unemployment benefits, but as its authenticity is proved, it now includes a payment scheme. The growth of biometric payments in a post-pandemic world According to global surveys, the pandemic has heightened awareness and acceptance of biometric payments. This popularity doesn’t show any signs of abating as we step into the post-pandemic era, thanks to a focus on sanitation and contactless payments. Biometric authentication is popular due to the simple and uncomplicated process that it entails. Unlike the conventional authentication techniques, which suffer from glitches like not getting an OTP or issues with the strength of the internet network. Biometric payments are becoming more popular in large and densely populated countries such as Russia, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ukraine, India, and others. Consumers sense the simple and foolproof option of biometric authentication is safer, quicker, and simpler. Biometric authentication provides several advantages over knowledge-based and possession-based authentications: 1. It’s universal, as these metrics can be found in every human. 2. It is unique. 3. It is permanent, as metrics like fingerprint or dental don’t change. 4. It can be easily recorded if the consumer wants it to be so. 5. Finally, it can be measured for comparison and cannot be falsified. Conclusion: Though there have been cases where Biometric authentication based on statistical algorithms may occasionally provide false positives, resulting in erroneous results, the benefits of using biometric authentication for digital payments outweigh the drawbacks. This is causing a significant shift towards its adoption, and it seems to be continuously growing. In a diverse socioeconomic environment like India which has a population that is both cost-sensitive and aspirational, there is no other solution that can beat biometric authentication. Author: Shatrughan Sharma, Global Head- Payment Security Wibmo A PayU/Naspers FinTech Company Authentication, Biometric Authentication, Global Digital Payments, Payments, Secure Payment

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What is Risk-Based Authentication and why banks should implement it?

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Driven by the trifecta of smartphone penetration, low-cost data rates, and higher incomes, the Indian e-commerce market was expected to grow to US$ 200 billion by 2026. Covid-19 has caused an inflection point for the e-commerce market in India. A Bain & Company-PRICE survey of 3000 households across income groups and geographies which was conducted between April and June, revealed about 13% of respondents buying online for the first time, while about 40% buying more online. An NRF survey showed that nearly 6 in 10 consumers say they are worried about going to the store due to fear of being infected. Figure 1: Growth of credit cards in India (Source: RBI database, Bank-wise ATM/POS/Card Statistics various years) The majority of the growth is from online shoppers in Tier 2 tier 3 cities. The pandemic has also seen a surge in UPI transactions. While credit cards did a total of 185 million transactions delivering a value of INR 805K million, UPI delivered a staggering 3654 million transactions with a value of INR 6543K million as per RBI and NPCI statistics for Sep 2021. Key Challenges and Solutions: With the spectacular growth in the eCommerce market sophisticated online payment frauds and threats have mushroomed too. An e-commerce transaction involves multiple entities at various stages, such as the marketplace, merchants, payment gateways, financial institutions, apart from the end consumers, and each of them can act as a vulnerability or attack point for malicious actors. For example: The end customer fraud making fraudulent claims, chargebacks, fake buyer accounts, promotion/coupon abuse. Malicious fraudsters involved in account takeover, identity theft, card detail theft, etc. Data leaks compromise millions of consumer details every year contributing to digital fraud through impersonation globally. Fraudulent merchants who could deploy “bust out” merchant fraud and transaction laundering mechanisms to defraud acquirers. However, transactional and identity security is not the only concern of financial institutions. This must be balanced with customer experience. Customer loyalties now lie with merchants and banks that offer the best experience in terms of convenience, speed, and security. With the myriad of devices, payment authentication options, and processes every digital bank faces the ultimate challenge of balancing optimal security and a seamless customer payment experience. This is where Wibmo’s Trident FRM makes a difference. Trident FRM is a comprehensive, omni-channel, risk-based authentication (RBA) solution that identifies and manages fraud in real time. It does so by building a holistic customer profile from diverse data points. Figure 2: Risk-Based Authentication A customer’s transaction journey begins on a checkout page or a bill payment action or when a customer does a fund transfer (wire transfer). These actions result in the customer connecting to the bank’s server and the bank’s server is an integration point for Trident to evaluate the risk of every transaction done by the user in real-time. Trident uses the data it receives from multiple channels and devices. Data comes in various forms, like: Transactional data: Card number/account number/phone number, amount, currency, merchant or payee information, billing, and shipping addresses. Location data: Terminal id, IP address, approximate latitude and longitude, ISP data. Device data: (SDK App ID, Browser information, proprietary device-fingerprinting) User information: Time of the day for this transaction and any deviations from past customer behavior using historical data. With more than 100 data points (in the case of online e-commerce), and a powerful set of operators Trident can write rules for almost every fraud scenario using an intuitive rule builder screen. In addition, Trident employs advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to generate a real-time score and decisions for every transaction. The decision can be one of the following: Low Risk: These are transactions that can be ALLOWED to proceed without challenging for OTP thereby delivering a seamless customer experience. In Wibmo’s experience, more than 90% of the transactions fall under this category. Medium Risk: Transactions that are suspected are risky enough to challenge using a multi-factor authentication method. High Risk: Transactions that are suspected to be very high risk and suggested to be declined. Any suspected fraudulent transaction is marked as a case for automated action or manual investigation and closure in the Case Management portal. An efficient case management portal drives both proactive and reactive fraud cases using consolidated data across channels. It also generates various reports that are required for regulatory and compliance purposes. Benefits of RBA are: Reduced financial losses due to fraud. Customer delight due to seamless payment experience. Improved compliance with local and global regulatory requirements. Reduced total cost of operations by managing fraud cases efficiently and limiting the number of cases routed for manual review. Impact Analysis: So, a frequently asked question is: What is the impact of doing risk-based authentication? For a credit card online purchase (card not present) scenario, RBA using Trident delivers almost 6–8% improvement in success rates for banks and almost 40% reduction in latency for completing the transaction for the end customers. To put this in perspective, as of Dec 2020 with an average ticket size of credit cards was Rs 3,653 and with 20 lakhs transactions per month for online transactions, for a given bank and assuming a 1% MDR, this is an additional uptick of 43 lakhs every month. Wibmo processes cards not present transactions for many of India’s largest banks. For a large bank with more than 150 lakh transactions, we were able to save close to Rs 5 lakhs in a month. Conclusion: As transaction volumes are set to grow in double digits year on year, and as customers expect to transact from anywhere using multiple devices, the threat of increased online fraud becomes more real. Customers want speed and convenience balanced with security, therefore, banks that deliver the most optimized services will win customer loyalty. Hence, it becomes imperative for issuers to be integrated with robust, omnichannel fraud detection and prevention risk engines. RBA solutions such as TRIDENT FRM is a cost-effective solution that empowers banks to stay one step ahead of fraudsters and deliver delightful customer experiences which they have come to expect in today’s digital world. Author: Ajit Nair, Director Product, and Programs Wibmo A

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Faster and Convenient Authentication

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Before the invention of the steam-driven railways in the 1800s, mankind was dependent on animal pulled wagons to transfer goods. The Tanfield Wagonway in England, the first large-scale railway, used horses to haul coal-filled wagons from the mining village of Tanfield. On the lookout for faster and more convenient forms of transportation, evolved from horses driven wagons to steam engines, from steam to diesel, and from diesel-driven to engines driven on electricity. Fast forward to the 21st century, the world is experimenting with hydrogen-powered trains. Consider the banking industry. Though there is no trace of the word ‘banking’ before the 1600s, the practice of safekeeping, saving, and transacting money can be traced back to the temples of Babylon. The Arthsashthra, written by Chanakya around 300 BC, has mentions of ‘hundis’ or letter of transfer. Had the banking industry failed to ride the technological horse, money transfer initiated through hundis would have taken days or at least hours, to reach the designated payee through the fastest railroad. Thankfully, the banking industry learned to ride the technological horse and today with the help of electronic transfer can facilitate the process of money transfer. Electronic transfer not only made money transactions faster but also convenient for the people, who were saved from the age-old hassle of going to a nearby branch and waiting for their turn in the long queues at the bank teller. Can money transactions be made faster and more convenient for the customers? The movement of the electrons, involved in the electronic transfer, cannot be made faster with current feasible resources nor the customers can have a more convenient experience in making transactions from the comfort of their homes. The only way to provide a better — faster and convenient- banking service could be through optimization of steps involved in internet transactions. A large part of the processes involved in electronic money transfer is dominated by Authentication or security — ensuring the money transfer takes place from the genuine customer. The introduction of OTP has been a major advancement in the banking industry. However, it is the one step that may be loved by the banks but hated by customers, especially when the OTP fails to arrive on time or when the user makes a mistake. Removing OTP altogether poses a serious threat to security and thus banks still rely on OTP services for user authentication. This brings us to the question — How authentication can be made faster and more convenient? Is it possible to have convenient security? The answer lies in DATA. Let’s consider a simple case of house-rent transfer. A genuine user would be transferring the same house-rent amount month after month to the same account, using mostly the same wifi connection (ISP), the same laptop/mobile, and may be even on the same day of the month. A fraudster, for sure, wouldn’t be so generous to take the pain of paying rent on the user’s behalf. All the parameters above can be easily tracked and monitored with data. The answer to a “Faster & More Convenient Authentication/Security” lies in identifying the right set of data and formulating them into risk assessment. Higher risk should demand stricter authentication whereas lower risk should lead to faster and convenient -frictionless transactions, paving way for customer delight. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of cashless transactions across the globe and is forcing the bank, more than ever, to evolve in order to meet the demands of smartphone-led online shopping culture, with cards and digital wallets rising in prominence. Banks need to leverage data and segregate high and low-risk transactions in order to provide ‘faster and convenient authentication to their customers. The demand for a fast, reliable, secure, and frictionless payment experience by customers requires banks to adopt fraud detection systems, which leverage the power of data through advanced machine learning technologies. When it comes to detecting subtle patterns which help in the identification of fraud transactions, machines are more effective than humans. Today, irrespective of the field, the power to leverage data, to provide ‘faster and convenient service, is one of the biggest assets for any organization. The faster and higher the convenience, the greater is the customer delight. The greater the customer delight, the higher is the customer loyalty. Author: Sujit Kumar Mahato, Product Manager Wibmo A PayU/Naspers FinTech Company Authentication, Digital Payment, Fraud Detection, Payments, Paytech

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Move to Pre-paid Cards for Simplifying your Corporate Expense Management

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Tracking Corporate Expenses made easy Corporate expenses range from individual employee benefits to infrastructural allocation to individual units. Everyone has heard the terms reimbursement, employee benefits claims, and other expenses albeit through the prism depicting a myriad of reactions — most of them unsavory to put it mildly. While the corporate executives find the long process of filing expense reports and submitting the invoices tiresome and at times bordering on lack of trust, the accounts find themselves in an unenviable position of questioning, auditing, and reconciling them with the Company Budget. And when auditors do come out with systems to reduce frauds, Department heads are regularly at loggerheads with accounts over the paperwork. The sum total is interdepartmental bad blood and a constant state of tug of war that can adversely affect both the operations and the accounts. Prepaid Cards for Corporate expenses are a boon to both employers and employees. Prepaid cards are one of the best tools to manage corporate expenses. It is no secret that as the company grows so do the expenses, especially the travel and other petty expenses which form a substantial percentage of the overall budget. The bottleneck in tracking is that the disbursement is through individual employees whose numbers might run in hundreds and at times in thousands. This is where maintaining a balance between fraudulent or mistaken charges versus operationally profitable charges becomes a challenge. The prepaid card enables control over the employee spending through a limit set over time and the amount. This also reduces the massive burden of claims or reimbursements. With reduced dependency on actual cash transactions, policy adherence and automated tracking enable the auditors to access a lot of information without depending on the employees for details saving both time and faceoffs. Pointers to get the most of Prepaid Cards to manage corporate expenses. Ideally, the Prepaid cards could be a major relief, but in practice, it is possible only if certain standards are maintained in the implementation and usage of this facility. Selecting a Vendor who would equip and facilitate these services, is crucial to the successful issuance of the Prepaid cards to the employees or other stakeholders of the company. The prepaid card program must be customized as much as their budget would allow. It should strictly adhere to the company policy with separate options for both open and closed-loop programs. The cards should be configured according to the needs, specific to the company for example some might need it to be used in ATMs while others might want it to work within just the cafeteria and sister concerns of the company. Some could select merchants or categories for a certain department or particular grades. E.g., sales teams should have options to use it on online travel sites or enable multiple currencies for certain grades. Wibmo’s Prepaid solution meets all these requirements and more. Covering the whole range of corporate expenses from payroll to daily expenses and travel expenses they are easy to use and have reloading wallets backed with 24-hour customer support. With every advancement comes its own set of risks and unethical practices. The good news is that the market has vendors who can provide services and fortify them against fraud. Two-factor authentication is always recommended for such cards with EMV chips for added security. Market Proven tools like TRIDENT-FRM can be used to disable fraudulent attempts. Additional security and control can be attained through vendors who provide Host Complete back-office card operations. In short, the prepaid cards can empower the companies to control the corporate expenses thereby bring them down without much sweating whilst the employees, now more aware of the limits, need not spend their productive hours filling out expense reports and more importantly feel more trusted with their dignity intact. Author: Krishnan KN, Advisor in Wibmo’s Agile PMO Wibmo A PayU/Naspers FinTech Company Expense management, Payment Security, Prepaid Card, Reimbursement

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