BioCatch recently partnered with the Knoble, a nonprofit organization focused on preventing financial and human crime, as well as thought leaders and experts in the banking, law enforcement, and legal community on an information sharing initiative. The goal of the working group was to tackle the challenges of complex regulations and internal policies that hinder information sharing and offer recommendations on how to overcome them.

One of the key recommendations in the report was how to work with your technology providers to maximize the value of existing data. Financial institutions already partner with fraud and AML technology providers, sharing various data points as part of the risk analysis process. As solutions are integrated, updated or expanded into the technology stack, it’s important to look at the different types of analyzed data points and the value they can bring. Financial institutions should know what data is available, how it was sourced, what standards and channels are used, and can it be shared. This level of analysis can lead to confident decision making when sharing data internally and across institutions.

Five key data points to get you started

But where do you start? For more than five years, the BioCatch data science team has thoroughly analyzed data from more than 50 banks, millions of users, and billions of mobile and web sessions across the globe. This comprehensive analysis has led to the identification of essential and sharable data points that have been shown to contribute to a meaningful uplift in detection rates both individually and collectively. These data points include transaction amount, account open date, account number, sending account number, and recipient account number.

In looking at the case of a large North American bank with over 55 million users who deployed the BioCatch Account Takeover model across mobile and web channels, by sharing these five data attributes as part of the risk assessment, they experienced a significant uplift in fraud detection rates, as noted in the chart below.

Making information sharing a two-way conversation

While this information sharing relationship between bank and vendor has proven positive benefits, the discussion remains mostly one sided. For example, we know that by BioCatch solutions ingesting these five key data points from the bank optimizes risk performance, but what does the information exchange from BioCatch to the bank look like? The short answer is it depends. For instance, some banks may want an offline raw data report while others may prefer an online report with access to BioCatch Analyst Station. But the ideal exchange takes place within the BioCatch Scout environment.

Within BioCatch Scout, banks can view critical data and connections from the Mule Account Detection and ATO solutions. BioCatch Scout is an investigation tool that leverages link analysis technology to create visual representations of networks connecting users, devices, and payees associated with fraud, ATO, or money laundering activities. By sharing and viewing data in this environment, bank analysts can drill down into high priority networks for a more detailed examination and investigation. Below is an example of how investigating a suspicious network revealed a relationship between high-risk mule accounts (orange and yellow), a confirmed ATO fraud (red exclamation mark), and an undetermined account (grey) that would be worthy of further investigation.

The topic of information sharing, whether it be between banks, law enforcement, or technology providers, can seem very nuanced and intimidating from the outside looking in. So much so that we often see hesitancy or direct refusal to even start the conversation internally due to the lack of education and understanding around policies in place. That’s why BioCatch will continue to shine a light on the benefits of information sharing and work with thought leaders regarding the best ways to navigate common concerns and offer solutions on how to overcome them.

Learn more

BioCatch Scout was recently recognized as the silver medalist in the Best Financial Crime Investigation and Reporting category by Datos Insights. Find out why tools, such as BioCatch Scout, that can visualize and analyze complex networks of suspicious activity are becoming essential to financial crime investigations. Download the case study.