Faced with heightened digital disruption and growing sophisticated fraud typologies, financial institutions across APAC rethink how to future-proof fraud prevention
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 15 October 2020 – GBG (AIM:GBG), the
global technology specialist in fraud and compliance management, identity
verification and location data intelligence, has today launched its inaugural
report across APAC, titled “Future-proofing
Fraud Prevention in Digital Channels: APAC FI Study“, which analyses
the impact of fraud on financial institutions (FIs) across six countries and
the technologies they are planning to invest in to mitigate today’s fraud
threats and scale to address emerging fraud patterns.
The report found FIs in APAC projecting an average
estimated budget of USD83.3 million to purchase new fraud prevention technology
in 2020-2021. The three countries with the highest average estimated fraud
budgets are Thailand at USD95.4 million, China at USD91.4 million and Indonesia
at USD88.9 million.
The research unveils trends and priorities of APAC FIs
in the digital age, key fraud and risk management challenges in digitalisation,
and technology investment plans to enable fraud insulated digital products and
channels.
According to the report, instant gratification for
finance and banking services is seeing greater demand and rollout by financial
institutions in APAC, with 31% of FIs planning for instant bank account
applications and instant loans, and 29% of FIs planning rollouts of instant
credit cards. Furthermore, financial products like e-wallets are becoming a
hygiene factor for 90% of financial institutions as they look to expand their
digital channels and deliver superior customer experiences.
As FIs vie for digital confidence with their target
consumers, 66% of respondents cited end to end fraud management platform
readiness as a key differentiation to driving preference. However, only 6% have
an existing implementation of an integrated end to end fraud and compliance
platform solution, and vertical silos are still seen in 43% of APAC financial institutions
and are most prevalent in digital banks. Upgrading to fraud management platform
solutions is also a work in progress for 57% of FIs and almost 50% have planned
investment to upgrade their digital onboarding fraud solutions.
The interest in new segments beyond the traditional
white- and blue-collared workforce is also apparent. The unbanked segment has
pivoted to be a mainstream focus as fraud technology advances, with almost a
third of respondents planning to access the unbanked (32%) and underbanked
(31%).
June Lee, APAC
Managing Director of GBG commented, “Looking
at 2020-2021, the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to push people and businesses
to take digital-first approaches to financial transactions. From our research,
e-wallet, instant financial services, mobile and app banking are going
mainstream rapidly, which make it urgent for FIs to take innovative and
proactive measures to future-proof against escalating digital financial crimes.
The pandemic is creating a lot of uncertainty, but the majority of FIs in APAC
recognise that an end to end fraud management platform is strategic to
differentiating themselves from the highly disruptive landscape they are
playing in and would be a springboard to scale fraud prevention and securing
digital trust with customers.”
Financial
Crimes 4.0, a term coined by GBG, is a mega risk trend covering the
heightened complexity and growing volume of emerging financial crime arising from
the state of hyperconnectivity and data deluge in today’s Industry 4.0. This
includes the boom in digitally connected devices, internet of things (IOT), and
online social sharing, where these rapid changes have opened new access points
and vulnerabilities that are being harnessed by sophisticated, malicious actors
with speed and scale.
Respondents recognised all fraud typologies are on the
rise, with social engineering crimes, in particular to scams, having a higher
projection. Respondents believe that they require stronger endpoint threat
prevention solutions to work across the onboarding and transaction customer
journey. The need for enhanced data intelligence to obtain a better 360 view of
a customer is also seeing an uptick with more than 50% of the respondents
planning to invest in the ability to ingest new data in 2020-21.
Chee Leong Chin, APAC Chief Technology
Officer of GBG, added, “The proliferation of personally identifiable
information (PII) is making consumers increasingly vulnerable and susceptible
to fraud and identity crimes. Meanwhile, customer expectations around instant access
to an increased variety of digital financial services and digital safety assurance
in transacting online are also skyrocketing. GBG continues to innovate and be
ahead of market needs with its tech stack ranging from end to end fraud
platforms, to pre-emptive fraud detection like machine learning and data
intelligence from best in class players across identity proofing, mobile and IP
assessment, cyber threats, credit risk and location intelligence.”
GBG collaborated with The Asian Banker to survey 324
financial institutions in six key Asia-Pacific markets including Australia,
China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
For more insights into the research, please join GBG’s “Future-proofing
Fraud Prevention for Digital Channels: APAC FI Study” webinar on 21 October.
For more
information about GBG’s range of solutions in APAC, click here. To view GBG
recent awards and achievements, visit
us here.
To access the
series of Future-proofing Fraud Prevention in Digital Channels reports, visit:
About GBG:
GBG offers a range
of solutions that help organisations quickly validate and verify the identity
and location of their customers.
Our market-leading
technology, data and expertise help our customers improve digital access,
deliver a seamless experience and establish trust so that they can transact
quickly, safely and securely with their customers online.
Headquartered in the
UK and with over 1,000 team members across 16 countries, we work with 20,000
customers in over 70 countries. Some of the world’s best-known businesses rely
on GBG to provide digital services and keep the economy moving, from US
e-commerce giants to Asia’s biggest banks and European household brands.
To find out more about how we help our clients
establish trust with their customers, visit www.gbgplc.com/apac, follow us on Twitter
@gbgplc or 
LinkedIn.
