Headlines:
HBOS Says Cyota System Cut Fraud 80%
HBOS PLC of Edinburgh said Monday that it had cut online fraud losses by four-fifths by using a Cyota Inc. system to monitor Internet access to customer accounts.
Since last August it has used the New York company's eVision system for spotting fraudulent access. When the system flags a particular transaction as high-risk, the bank checks its legitimacy by phoning the account holder.
"Whilst it is not our policy to release specific figures on fraud performance, the savings are substantial and we can confirm that monthly fraud losses in the areas addressed by eVision are down over 80% on the experienced losses up to July 2004," said Gordon McFadyen, the fraud prevention manager at HBOS, in reply to an e-mail.
"This low level of loss has been consistently obtained since its introduction," he said, and 60% of the fraud alerts eVision generates "prove to have been fraudulent attempts" to access and transact from customer accounts.
"We have had no negative feedback from customers as a result of using this system," Mr. McFadyen said. "Indeed, many are impressed with our effectiveness in contacting them to confirm suspect activity."
Mr. McFadyen said the online system works better than the detection systems that HBOS uses to analyze credit card transactions. That is so, he said, because eVision uses the characteristics of the Internet connection, such as the Internet Protocol address, and of the user's computer, along with fraud data it culls from other users through what Cyota calls its eFraudNetwork.
Naftali Bennett, Cyota's chief executive, said eVision enables banks to spot frauds faster. "Without the eFraudNetwork, each bank would have to get pounded by fraud for a few weeks, typically, before they realize that 'Oh, this is a trend,' " Mr. Bennett said Monday. But because eVision pools their experience, "the moment you touch one of the banks in the eFraudNetwork, all the other banks are protected."
Fiserv Buys BillMatrix Bill-Payment Firm
Fiserv Inc. of Brookfield, Wis., now owns a bill-payment operation.
On Friday it said it had bought BillMatrix Corp. of Dallas, a specialist in last-minute payment. The $350 million purchase agreement was announced last month.
BillMatrix provides telephone and online services to more than 120 companies. It works directly with billers to allow last-minute phone or online payments, and those billers often charge their customers a fee for the expedited payment.
