Nine PH financial institutions team up for fraud data sharing

Nine initial financial institutions have agreed to share information for the Fraud Intelligence Data Sharing (FIDS) Network, powered by credit bureau CIBI Information Inc., in partnership with the Fintech Alliance of the Philippines.

Under the FIDS Network, members will contribute verified fraud information, including confirmed and suspicious activities, to a shared database.

This covers application data, as well information from third parties such as fraud repositories and fraud lists.

The nine initial members include BDO Unibank Inc., GoTyme Bank Corp., the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. (HSBC), Maya Bank Inc., the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), SB Finance Inc., UNO Digital Bank, and micro, small, and medium enterprise lending firm ABUM.

Other firms have also expressed their intent to join the network, with others such as Tala Philippines, Land Bank of the Philippines, and mobile wallet provider GCash, operated by GXchange Inc.

The partnership will allow members to contribute intelligence in exchange for access, with CIBI offering a free six-month proof of concept to all.

“It’s not just about the legislation, it’s not just about the policies of government, but it’s really more on how we can muster the support coming from the private sector, especially the industry players, how to collectively help that same objective of having to combat fraud,” Fintech Alliance PH founding chairman Angelito “Lito” Villanueva said in a briefing.

“If there’s one thing amongst competitors now, kusang united kami (we’re united), it’s all about having to ensure to keep that digital trust intact because if the faith or confidence of the public will be diminished because of this cyber fraud, cybercrime, cyberattacks, etcetera, then the future of digitalization will be in style,” he added.

According to CIBI head of products Jasmine Alasalon-Gonzales, the top cases of fraud are mule accounts, skimming, and account takeovers, which could be addressed by the data sharing network.

“If all banks collaborate, then we can easily spot which are the accounts that are constantly used for transfers, where they get a lot of complaints, where they get a lot of reasons – ‘Oh, my account was blocked because it was used, it wasn’t a transaction,’ so that’s where we can create a pattern and detect collectively,” she said in the same briefing.

“The frauds, they all partner together so us, we need to partner as well. It’s a network of criminals, right?” she added.

Moving forward, the network plans to include firms from other industries such as telecommunications and insurance. — JMA, GMA Integrated News