Swift adopts AI to fight real-time fraud

Swift's financial messaging service provider recently unveiled its new ambition to build on the latest artificial intelligence technologies to strengthen its efforts and better combat fraud. This deployment will focus on cross-border payment fraud and illustrate the trend towards democratisation of AI usage on this issue.

FACTS

• Swift has just announced the deployment of an anomaly detection service based on Artificial Intelligence technology to help banks detect and counter potential payments offences.
• Technically, the new service combines Swift's existing payment control solutions with an anonymised data analysis solution from billions of transactions circulating on the Swift network every year.
• It is then able, thanks to AI technologies, to identify and report suspicious transactions, enabling the banks that have been notified to take the necessary action in real time.
• This announcement concludes a phase of successful testing by Swift with financial institutions based in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. Global coverage is therefore necessarily necessary to deploy a solution specifically adapted to cross-border payments.
• The service is formalized today but will be available from January 2025.

CHALLENGES

• Building on proactive tools: Integrating AI into the core of Swift's crime detection and scam solution promises a proactive approach to fraud detection
• Confirm its objectives: last June Swift launched two projects based on the AI and collaboration in the fight against fraud. The aim was then to respond to the increase in fraud in cross-border payments by building on cooperation between financial institutions and the sharing of transaction-related information. More than just a project, Swift is now implementing its objectives.
• Responding to a major threat: According to the global financial crime report of Nasdaq 2024, $3.1 billion in illicit funds passed through the global financial system in 2023. In the same year, fraud and bank fraud totaled $485.6 billion in global losses.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Swift insists on the quality of its tests with its global community of over 11,500 banks and financial institutions. The network relies on collaboration as a key element in the success of its anti-fraud strategy.
• It seeks to distinguish itself from the strong competition that currently exists in this market, while many players have already presented their own anti-fraud solution based on AI, such as Visa, Revolut or MasterCard.
• MasterCard is not only trying to compete with Swift on the fight against fraud, but also on the acceleration of cross-border payments. The scheme has just presented a new product innovation, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments, which will enable banks to facilitate cross-border commercial payments in near real time.