CBA may use genAI 'customers' for tests, Elavon gets a license in the U.K.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is examining how it can use generative artificial intelligence to create faux consumers who can test new products. Speaking at South by Southwest Sydney last week, Dan Jermyn, CBA chief decision scientist, said the technology can enable machines to process and interpret patterns to create "new outputs." The bank plans to use these new outputs to create chatbots that will perform experiments on products to see how popular the products may be. "By drawing on simulated experiences of daily life to emulate behaviors, we're testing whether these GenAI chatbots could provide qualitative and quantitative understanding of how customers might respond to changing contexts, everyday financial challenges and new products," Jermyn said in a release reporting on his speech. The bank plans to use the bots as a way to enhance research, rather than replace real humans. "We could use GenAI to enable us to get a better product or service in front of customers earlier," Jermyn said. Banks globally are looking for easy to use generative AI, and are normally focused on customer service or to help internal staff with technology issues. —John Adams

The Bank of England has granted a financial services license to Elavon, U.S. Bancorp's  payment processing subsidiary. The license will enable the bank to offer products such as authorization, settlement, and investment services. Elavon had already provided payment processing in the U.K. and was operating under a temporary license following Brexit. "The U.K. market is vital to our business and an integral part of our footprint in Europe. We have long been a reliable and trusted payments partner for businesses large and small in the U.K. This authorization strengthens our reputation in the U.K. and as a global payments leader," says Hemlata Narasimhan, president of Elavon Merchant Services, in a release. Elavon recently upgraded its payments technology to expand support for in-store terminals, and Tap to Pay, which enables store staff to use their own smartphones to accept payments without adding extra hardware. —John Adams

Netherlands-based Rabobank has expanded its partnership with local payments firm SurePay to increase the range of international bank account numbers the bank can check to vet payments to ensure the parties sending and receiving the payment are valid. The bank and technology company have also released a fraud risk indicator, which will report risk scores for banks to use to flag potential payments or users for fraud. The indicator will be in addition to the standard confirmation of payee checks that are done as part of the IBAN scan. Rabobank says this expansion uses its existing API connection to SurePay, which will minimize the amount of work the bank had to do to expand its security. The bank is attempting to add speed to fraud prevention, a vital step as more payments process in real time. Visa, for example, recently began tests on a fraud prevention service that uses artificial intelligence. Called RTP Prevent, it produces a risk score for instant payments so banks can decide to approve or reject the transaction. Similar to Rabobank's service, Visa also contends the score is aimed to reduce false positives, or transactions that are illegitimately flagged. —John Adams