COVID-19 led to accelerated digitization globally, which subsequently and unsurprisingly resulted in an increase in fraudulent activity. To combat the rise in fraud, Refinitiv recently combined World-Check, its risk intelligence solution, with GIACT’s EPIC Platform, which Refinitiv acquired in late 2020, via single API. Not only will the combined solution make organizations (along with their customers and vendors) more secure, but will also help streamline operations and create a better, faster customer experience.
To further discuss why many businesses are choosing a single API solution for their fraud and risk mitigation needs, as well as the current state of fraud in the marketplace, PaymentsJournal sat down with James Mirfin, Global Head of Digital Identity and Fraud Solutions at Refinitiv, and Tim Sloane, VP of Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group.
Epic Platform integrates with World-Check
Refinitiv recently announced the integration of GIACT’s EPIC Platform with Refinitiv World-Check, a risk intelligence data set used by corporates, companies, and financial services firms around the world to help them scope out regulatory risk. “We’ve brought that together through the platform, and they’re now making it available via a single API,” said Mirfin.
The combined solution can assist customers in taking a holistic approach to managing fraud and risk, while supporting these customers throughout their entire lifecycle. With this integration, the merged capabilities can help with enrollment and onboarding, securing payments, addressing change events as well as compliance and due diligence.
“[Refinitiv] believe[s] that bringing this together through one platform—combining the unique data sets that we have as LSEG, Refinitiv, and GIACT—can really help clients, whether it’s around consumer or business identity, payments, [or] compliance risks throughout the lifecycle,” added Mirfin.
Additionally, customers in the market have reported that it is unique to be able to bring data assets and capabilities together through a single API and a single integration. “This single API with a broad availability of data gives [customers] lots of flexibility,” concluded Sloane.
Benefits of a single API solution
APIs are a hot topic, both for industry professionals and non-technologists. They are important because customers are looking to consolidate vendors and make it easier to work with a smaller number of partners who can support their businesses across a variety of challenging verticals.
“[It’s really important to bring] broad sets of capability together through that single API in a way that it’s easily understood by the teams that are looking to implement it on the development side, but also the business users that are trying to solve real use cases and real problems, helping them understand the power of the data and the technology that sits behind that API,” offered Mirfin.
Whether it is solving identity verification challenges during onboarding, making sure account takeover by a bad actor is not a possibility, or adding new products to an existing relationship, Refinitiv makes sure its customers understand how they can use its API to protect both their assets and their customers across all offerings. “The single API is a great way to help our customers: it makes it easier to manage that integration, [and] it helps them think about different ways that they can go and roll out new products in a confident way,” continued Mirfin.
Implementing Refinitiv’s single API solution properly can also be an enabler of growth, a result of the support customers receive in new areas such as onboarding their clients.
Addressing fraud concerns
The newly integrated platform supports multiple verticals and use cases, which is only one of the benefits Refinitiv offers. However, it can be challenging at times because it is so expansive. “I think about customers we’ve talked about [recently] and the challenges that they’re having: it’s cut across everything from crypto, to payments, to banks, to insurance and lending to SMEs, to real estate,” explained Mirfin. And it seems these challenges have also been fueled by the pandemic, with companies being forced to rapidly digitize their business models.
This rapid digitization creates opportunities for fraudsters. Fraud grew nearly 50% from 2019 to 2020, with over $700 billion in lost revenue in 2020. Some industry professionals estimate that this year will see around $770 billion, which Mirfin views as being on the lower end of the spectrum: “[The industry is] realistically heading towards a trillion-dollar problem here, or a trillion-dollar fraud industry for the criminals and the fraudsters.” This is expected to impact every business, with a multitude of different types of fraud hitting the market.
One example of a popular variation of fraud is business email compromise. For a business experiencing email compromise, the inauthentic payment can cost the company into the seven figures. It is different than consumer fraud, which is often only a few hundred dollars.
Fraudsters become more creative every day, which illustrates the challenges of implementing point solutions as opposed to implementing a platform. The crypto space is a particularly challenging arena, as there tends to be a lot more collaboration and information sharing amongst players. However, crypto is a newer branch of the payments industry, and its leaders are coming to market each day to share intelligence around fraud and discuss how to solve those problems.
The future of Refinitiv
The integration of GIACT’s EPIC Platform with Refinitiv World-Check is a big step forward for Refinitiv, and the global provider worked quickly to bring each of the capabilities together. But Refinitiv is always looking toward the future, both for the success of the business and for the success of its customers.
Refinitiv plans to continue with innovation and the consideration of where fraud is heading next. This will allow Refinitiv to provide the protection its customers need while making it easy for them to benefit from the capabilities on the market. Users of Refinitiv’s technologies can expect more exciting announcements through the second half of 2021 involving additional capabilities that are being added to the platform.
Fraud will continue to be a challenge for all businesses, but Refinitiv is determined to deliver world-class solutions to help customers across industries, functions, and job roles protect their own organizations and customers from increasingly costly and complex types of fraud.
