KeyBank to use Mastercard's AI approval tool

KeyBank will deploy Mastercard's advanced transaction decisioning technology, boosting the card network's push into artificial intelligence-powered authorization.

Mastercard and KeyBank announced that the bank is deploying Mastercard Decision Intelligence to increase the accuracy of real-time approvals of card transactions and improve the overall cardholder experience. The security solution uses artificial intelligence to make more informed authorization decisions.

Mastercard Decision Intelligence is being deployed across both debit and credit consumer portfolios, but does not yet cover the Mastercard KeyBank commercial portfolio at the moment.

“Our renewed relationship with Mastercard, as partners to provide a simple, seamless and secure way to manage money, is another example how we work to help clients make financial progress, one decision at a time,” said Jason Rudman, head of KeyBank Consumer Payments and Digital, in the press release. KeyBank and Mastercard renewed their exclusive relationship last year to deliver payment services to the bank’s consumer, small business and commercial customers.

Mastercard first made the AI platform available to issuers in December 2016, when it announced the completion of the pilot phase of testing. Since then it has begun to attract attention from large issuers and processors interested in deploying the technology to combat growing fraud.

In March, Fiserv deployed the service to financial institution clients to improve accuracy of real-time approvals, reduce the number of false declines and make transactions easier to execute for consumers. False declines are a particular problem. The number of active cards drops by an average of 20% in the six months following the last of multiple false declines, according to Fiserv.