Unicorn News: Kyriba Unveils Payment Network That Fights Fraud

With payment fraud a growing problem, unicorn cloud treasury and finance solutions firm Kyriba on Wednesday unveiled a new payments network to combat the issue, centralize payments and make organizations more efficient.

In 2018, $1.48 billion was reported lost due to fraud by consumers. The median loss was $375.

A recent survey by American Express indicated 77% of companies and 53% of consumers reported some kind of fraud in the last year with fears of vulnerability growing across mobile, web and point-of-sale channels.

“Merchants estimate fraudulent transactions account for an average of 27% of their annual online sales, a significant increase from 18% in 2018. And, 69% agree that a significant amount of company time and expense is dedicated to dealing with fraud,” the survey of 400 companies and 1,004 consumers indicated.

“While 59% of consumers say they are worried about having their payment account or credit card information compromised when making an online purchase, only 40% worry when making purchases in-person.”

An Association for Financial Professionals survey indicated 88% of corporate practitioners reported being targets of attempted or victims of cyberattacks with nearly half (77%) making fighting such attacks a priority.

Kyriba, whose majority owner is the private equity firm Bridgepoint, said its network works in real time to detect fraud and streamline bank connectivity.

“CIOs [chief information officers] are challenged with finding ways to accelerate ERP [enterprise resource planning] projects and reduce payments transformation costs against a larger backdrop of increasing payments fraud and keeping up with market innovations, such as real-time payments,” Jean-Luc Robert, chairman and CEO of Kyriba, said in a press release.

Kyriba allows clients to set predetermined fraud detection parameters, including payment transfers to overseas accounts and payments to nonexistent suppliers, and sends real-time alerts. The system uses machine learning to identify anomalies.

"Most payments fraud is preventable by using artificial intelligence alongside digital enforcement of corporates' payment policies," Bob Stark, Kyriba senior strategist, told IBTimes in an email.

"The risk of payments fraud can be nearly 100% eliminated by standardizing payment controls, digitizing payment policies, and employing machine learning to assist with payments screening as long as corporate payment policies are strictly followed. This is especially significant when enterprise companies issue tens of thousands of payments per month."