Artificial intelligence is helping keep credit card networks more transparent
Credit card companies are starting to use technology like artificial intelligence (AI) to get better at detecting fraudsters. At the latest MasterCard’s Virtual Cyber & Risk Summit, two top executives from MasterCard confirmed that the company is searching for patterns of criminal activity that can be stopped before they become major attacks through the use of AI-based tools. “In many cases, AI is fundamental to scaling and keeping up with the pace of the network transactions that are happening,” said Mastercard senior vice president and head of Brighterion Sudhir Jha.
The other top executive who spoke about the company’s advancements in fighting credit card fraud was Nitendra Rajput, Mastercard’s vice president of product development and head of the company’s AI department. He added that AI is becoming the only way to effectively tackle the challenges that companies face, not only with fraud, but other business issues, too. “It is one of the key components of our scale strategy in terms of how we want to differentiate and provide value to our customers around the world,” Jha explained.
As a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on society, more people are using credit cards to perform online and app-based transactions, which represent a higher risk of fraud.
Both executives consider that companies need to invest in better fraud detection solutions to tackle the increasing volume of transactions. “We were focusing on acquirers before, and we are doubling down on that and providing both in terms of how to manage risky merchants and also how to manage [a] risky transactions portfolio and to ensure that they’re not getting fined for excessive fraud in their network,” Jha said.
