Interswitch to Launch Advanced Fraud Control Systems for Banks in Kenya

Interswitch East Africa- has today announced plans to introduce two advanced fraud control systems in Kenya known as Card Control and Scorebridge intended to further enhance fraud security for cardholders and financial institutions.

The card based fraud prevention systems will add a new layer of protection for consumers and financial institutions, over and above the new EMV (Chip and PIN) cards introduced in Kenya over the last two years. On Scorebridge, Interswitch said financial institutions will have access to  a “real- time rules engine” and artificial intelligence technologies-enabling a real time analysis of financial transactions to determine whether they should be authorized or declined.

Interswitch East Africa, CEO Bernard Matthewman, said customers and banks using the systems will achieve measurable fraud savings and will be able to put a figure on how much they save from potentially fraudulent transactions. “We continue to work with a large number of financial institutions seeking to strengthen card security in areas of vulnerability. Interswitch’s Card Control App for cardholders and Scorebridge for financial institutions are highly convenient solutions with almost no impact on transaction processing time and which will reduce the time spent by bank staff investigating fraud.”

“Because of their intelligent nature, these new advanced solutions will result to even lesser incidences of card present and card not present fraud even in cases where customer’s card identity and PIN are exposed or stolen,” said Mr. Matthewman.  The CEO was speaking at a bankers breakfast event organized by the company at a Nairobi Hotel.

Interswitch serves more than 40% of East Africa’s financial institutions who have outsourced debit /credit card issuance, (gateway) switching as well as electronic processing for card and mobile money.

Commenting on Scorebridge at the same event, Interswitch Kenya head of Products Justin Larby said the fully customizable solution comes with predefined card payment permission rules and allows for an unlimited addition of further rules to be set and activated in accordance with the wishes of the card issuer. It works to secure the major debit and credit card platforms present in Kenya (Verve, Mastercard and Visa). .

On Card Transaction Control Mr Larby said he expected it to improve the relationship between cardholders and card issuers by bringing the experience under the control of the user, which is important all over the world, but particularly here in Kenya.

“We understand the need to create solutions that are relevant and specific to the business environment we all operate in and so it was important for us to create a way to enable Kenyan cardholders take control of their own transaction security.  We are committed to offering our partners the full experience of intuitive exchange.”

An estimated 70% of Kenya card payments market moved to the new Europay, Mastercard Visa (EMV) card technology platform, through the Great Migration to EMV Chip campaign initiated by Interswitch’s predecessor the Paynet Group.

Since being founded in 2002, Interswitch has grown rapidly and consistently, resulting in a current transaction volume of 350 million transactions per month and more than US$ 32 billion a year across its platforms.  Interswitch runs one of Africa’s leading payment card brand ‘Verve’ and Nigeria’s largest online payment portal ‘Quickteller’. It is the first company in West Africa to attain CMMI level 3 ratings. The e-commerce industry market leader recorded revenue growth of 1226% in the last five years and is ranked the fastest growing tech company in Africa according to Deloitte.