September 25, 2015

Fraud prevention is a top priority for every financial institution. While bigger banks can invest millions of dollars a year in sophisticated systems that can detect and prevent fraud even before losses occur, smaller organizations with leaner budgets might not have access to these top-dollar systems or full-time, in-house expertise.

The good news is that these small to mid size organizations can still offer their customers security with an affordable option from DC Payments Fraud Solutions. The company's state-of-the-art system provides near real-time data, complex analytics, and timely alerting capabilities that continually improve customers' ability to detect and prevent fraud.

DC Payments Director of Fraud and Payment Solutions, Helen Hartsell, and her team of fraud experts currently serve a group of nearly 50 small to mid size credit unions. Hartsell oversees a 24/7, year-round monitoring and alerting system designed to apply the most up-to-date anayltics and detect and prevent fraudulent activity and proactively address threats.

'For most institutions, the only fraud they know is the fraud they're experiencing,' Hartsell says. 'But I can see transactions processing and fraud occurring over 48 different institutions, so what's happening at institution A may not be happening yet at institutions B, C, or D, but I can say, 'We've seen this trend here, so let's put some rules and alerting in place to proactively protect all institutions.' We leverage what we see going on in one place to help protect everyone, as fraudsters will typically attack multiple institutions with the same approach once they get shut down by the early victims.'

Customized, automated, localized monitoring
To implement a solution for a particular institution, Hartsell and her team typically work with the client to determine what they currently have in place and how DC Payments' solutions might augment or replace existing processes, such as manual batch reports reviewed periodically throughout the day, or other less timely methods. The team provides analytical support and makes recommendations for both detection strategies and operational best practices. Once the new system is up and running, DC Payments provides 24/7 monitoring and support, ensuring clients know they are protected at all times.

Hartsell says DC Payments' bureau-based solution means that clients get state-of-the-art protection at a lower cost, without having to make costly investments in IT infrastructure and personnel.

'We have some competitors,' she says, 'but our implementation has proven to be the most cost-effective, sophisticated, and truly Canadian solution available to smaller institutions.'

That country-specific approach is important; DC Payments works with experts throughout North America to keep abreast of both fraud and technology trends, but the company's analytics and fraud experts are based here in Canada. Hartsell says this is critical when you want to ensure you are alerting on the fraud that happens to Canadian issuers, while maintaining low false-positive rates.

'Because we know our clients and their demographics, we're able to help them find the balance between managing fraud mitigation and preserving a positive cardholder experience,' Hartsell adds. 'You can't have a successful business without some incidence of fraud. You'll never be at a zero basis point, and if you are, then it's likely you're losing something on revenue or customer experience. We help our clients find that balance.'

The DC Payments team has strong relationships with with payments associations, law enforcement, credit bureaus, and financial institutions. In addition, the company's service bureau model pools aggregate data to inform its software, which essentially self-learns, continually updating known and potential threats and creating new strategies for detection and mitigation.

'We understand the challenges our clients face, and we believe in partnering with them to meet their unique needs,' Hartsell says. 'Within our target market, we've been able to bring losses down to the point that our customers are happy, and we continue to improve.'

In fact, the company expects to have a real-time enterprise solution suitable for institutions of any size available in 2016.

'With fraud, time is of the essence,' Hartsell says. 'We're passionate about fraud management, and we'll continue to provide our clients with the most responsive and advanced fraud system we can deliver.'

For more information about fraud solutions for your business, contact DC Payments today, toll-free at 1-888-414-3733 or by email.

More DCPayments News

distributed by