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News and resources on cyber and physical threats to banks and fintechs worldwide.

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Expert opinions

Nicole Pienkos

Nicole Pienkos Head of Regional Banking at FIS

Managing Risk in Turbulent Times

The expanded scope of risk management in banking Chief Risk Officers (CROs) must stay vigilant on current threats and risk issues while also keeping an eye on future risk management trends. Bankers face various threats, and for CROs – when it comes to safeguarding their institution from both traditional risks and emerging challenges – “the buck s...

/security /retail

Kyrylo Reitor

Kyrylo Reitor Chief Marketing Officer at International Fintech Business

Forex Market Regulation on the African Continent

Africa, with its rapidly growing economy and the dynamic development of financial markets, is increasingly attracting the attention of investors from around the world. The Forex market in this region demonstrates significant potential, but its growth is constrained by several specific factors requiring appropriate regulation. Regulation of Forex i...

/security /markets Fintech

Brian Mahlangu

Brian Mahlangu VP Product: Digital Platforms Mobile at Absa Bank, CIB.

The Secure Fingerprint: Why Biometrics Have Become Essential for Corporate Clients

One morning, as I was preparing for a meeting with a corporate client, I remembered a recent incident that underscored the importance of reliable security. A close colleague’s company had been the target of a significant cyber attack, with unauthorized users somehow gaining access to their internal systems. Despite two-factor authentication, someo...

/security /crime Biometrics

Dirk Labuschagne

Dirk Labuschagne Chief Information Security Officer at Direct Transact

Why and how to run a Tabletop Ransomware Simulation Exercise

The past year was the worst on record for ransomware attacks around the globe. In the past year, ransomware attacks were the worst on record due to an estimated 92% year-on-year global increase. Criminals made off with more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency payments from victims and left a trail of destruction in their wake. This is why ransom

/security /regulation Information Security

Erica Andersen

Erica Andersen Marketing at smartR AI

Maintaining Enterprise Data Privacy in a Data-Hungry World

The rise of large language models (LLMs) and other AI systems has created an insatiable demand for data. While these models offer incredible potential, their hunger for data presents a significant challenge for enterprises striving to maintain data privacy. We also need to see data privacy within the whole data is power context to guarantee a long

/ai /security Artificial Intelligence and Financial Services

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Trending

Nicole Pienkos

Nicole Pienkos Head of Regional Banking at FIS

Managing Risk in Turbulent Times

Kyrylo Reitor

Kyrylo Reitor Chief Marketing Officer at International Fintech Business

Forex Market Regulation on the African Continent

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Research

Impact Study

2024 Fraud Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Beyond

How generative AI is boosting fraud protection in an increasingly complex environment. As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of institutions to secure data and systems. Over 2024, the fraud landscape has been complex, and organisations must push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining a high security bar as the availability and democratisation of AI increases as we're going into 2025. The tidal wave of incoming regulation in the financial sector is an aspect that will help banking and insurance companies to safeguard their customers and data in the best way possible. Yet regulation alone does not address fraud – it’s up to individual organisations to leverage the potential of technology, and review their solutions, processes, and thus ensure compliance and safety. As fraud and regulation increase in the space, technology is one of the key factors that will help banks and insurance companies to address these increased fraud risks. Generative AI enables organisations to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, and combining these capabilities with carrier network insights can not only help them significantly reduce authentication fraud, but also ensure regulatory compliance. This impact study, produced in association with AWS and Vonage, examines the current fraud landscape across financial services, banking, and insurance, highlighting how generative AI and network APIs can help prevent fraud while enhancing the customer experience. Explore: Fraud trends in 2024 The impact of regulation Why data is the new gold How organisations can innovate with generative AI Best practices

201 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Embedded Finance in Africa 2025

Embedded finance is changing the payment landscape in Africa. The question now is: what will it take for embedded finance to truly scale across Africa? The global embedded finance market is set to grow beyond $228 billion by 2028 according to Juniper Research. As this market matures and consumer confidence in the technology grows, this will likely prove to be a significant chunk of global financial services. In Africa, this emerging trend has the potential to unlock new economic opportunities. As a less mature market, it is not as hindered by legacy payments systems, making it ripe for payment innovation from embedded finance. It has the potential to reshape the continent’s current payments landscape, broaden innovation opportunities, and drive financial inclusion. As a market Africa is very adaptable to different technologies, and embracing of newer, more agile services. A lot of the population to the majority of their banking through their mobile phones, making embedded finance fit seamlessly into financial worlds of the populace. Yet there are many factors which will alter and develop the ability for embedded finance to take hold. This Finextra report, sponsored by Kora, received contributions from Binance, Indelible Inc., Mojaloop Foundation, and Nikulipe. It explores:  Making embedded cross-border payments work in Africa; Unlocking the opportunities of embedded e-commerce in the African market; Embedded finance: Encouraging African financial inclusion; Why personalisation in embedded finance is the next step for African fintech; Regulating Africa to encourage embedded finance innovation.

259 downloads

Impact Study

Adding GenAI To Your Fraud Prevention Strategy

We explore the numerous benefits of generative AI for fighting fraud.  In an instant payment, cross-border world, fraud is more nefarious and prevalent than ever. Recent research shows that worldwide, APP (Authorised Push Payment) fraud now represents 75% of all digital banking fraud on a dollar-value basis. By 2026, losses are expected to reach $5.25 billion – revealing that APP fraud is one of the biggest threats to financial institutions (FIs) globally.  The next pre-emptive step in the fight against fraud is generative AI (GenAI), which uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate new content like text, audio, video and even new computer code. While GenAI is still in the fledgling stages of adoption within fraud prevention, it will soon become a true differentiator.  But how exactly are scammers deploying AI to their advantage? What are the best ways to incorporate GenAI into a fraud prevention strategy? How should consumer privacy be managed? This impact study answers these questions and casts an eye over the current fraud landscape, the regulatory implications, and the vital role of innovation.  This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Outseer, explores:  The evolution of scams;  The role of AI;  Technology and the impact of generative AI;  How to embed AI in the best way possible;  Addressing regulatory challenges and concerns;  And more. 

393 downloads

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FinextraTV

Payments Innovation will be Threefold: Embedded, Cross-Border and GenAI

In this PREDICT 2025 interview, Gautam Pillai, Head of Fintech Research at investment bank Peel Hunt, looks at the bigger picture and takes into account how the payments industry is transforming alongside consumer trends. Buzz and excitement surrounds three developments, which are embedded payments, cross border payments and generative AI and the interview discusses how organisations working in these areas are already helping businesses transact easier, faster and in a way where they are not sacrificing security.

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Long reads

Níamh Curran

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

How to pick a 3-D Secure provider

Amid increasing ecommerce sales, changing consumer expectations, and regulatory shifts, payments issuers and processors need to continually evolve to decrease risks from card not present (CNP) transactions and customer authentication process. As the number of online payments grows, organisations are at increased risk of loss as a result of CNP frau...

Retired Member

Retired Member

How FSI companies can leverage AI to enhance cybersecurity

With generative AI, UK financial services companies have an opportunity to unlock new possibilities through innovation, which can help them boost their resilience amid increasing cybersecurity threats. This will help them to better serve customers, increase growth and contribute to the country becoming an AI global leader. The financial services i...

Hamish Monk

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

How to recover from a data breach

On 7th May, several China-sponsored cyber-attacks on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) compromised data from its outsourced payroll system, SSCL (a subsidiary of Paris-based Sopra Steria) – exposing the names and banking information of 270,000 past and present military personnel from the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force. In the wake of this news, Fin...