Zurich Cantonal Bank taps NetGuardians to tackle payments fraud

Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB) has selected Swiss regtech NetGuardians as part of a programme designed to enhance fraud prevention in response to an increase in payment fraud.

With CHF 192 billion ($202 billion) in assets under management, ZKB is the largest cantonal bank in Switzerland.

The bank says that not only is payment fraud becoming “more prevalent” but attacks are also becoming “more sophisticated”, making them harder to spot.

NetGuardians uses behavioural analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to build “highly accurate” customer profiles.

All transactions linked to an account are continuously monitored across all channels, compared against the customer profiles and given a risk score. The bank will only contact a customer when their risk score reaches a pre-determined level.

“The result is a massive reduction in the number of false positives, thereby maintaining an excellent customer and user experience while cutting the bank’s operational costs,” NetGuardians says.

It adds that its machine learning algorithms can discover new fraud schemes, helping banks stay on top of emerging threats.

Headquartered in Switzerland, NetGuardians claims to have more than 80 banks and wealth managers across 30 countries as customers. It has also partnered with banking software companies including Finastra, Avaloq, Mambu and Finacle to prevent fraud.