Why managing cross-channel fraud is a must

Our recent fraud survey of hundreds of financial institutions uncovered that only 26% have a team assigned to detect cross-channel fraud.  The problem stems from how institutions manage fraud—by payment channel rather than at the customer level.  This makes them vulnerable, unable to identify fraudsters targeting one channel for compromise and perpetrating the fraud on another.

Fraud MUST be tracked at the customer level.  Customers have many different types of accounts and access different payment products.  An account takeover situation could involve moving funds from a HELOC account to a checking account and transmitting the funds away; or it could involve bad checks deposited to a checking account that are used to pay down a credit card balance, which is then used up right away. 

If there is a risky transaction in one part of your customer relationship, then you need to quickly assess your total customer risk.  Total customer risk involves looking at all of the products a particular customer has with your financial institution.  Understanding your customer’s relationship with you allows you to understand their real risk.  A customer who overdrafts and has several large CDs has a different risk profile than someone who overdrafts and also has a 60 day-past-due on a line of credit.  Once you organize under the customer, cross-channel fraud detection becomes possible.