Fraud detection

Ramamurthi has transformed a 123-year-old institution with one branch serving a dusty Kansas town into a seedbed for disruptive financial technology — not to mention a wildly profitable generator of fee income.

The Dec. 2 mass shooting has shone a light on the sector's vulnerability to borrowers who, exploiting the absence of face-to-face contact on the Internet, lie on their loan applications.

The debate over whether signatures or PINs are a stronger security feature overlooks the fact that neither is the most important defense against fraud.

As shopping goes digital, so does fraud. The rise in technology at shoppers' fingertips provides many new channels for scammers to exploit, often leaving banks holding the bag.

Buying stolen data is an effective way for banks to determine the source of a breach. But fraudsters are increasingly putting up roadblocks because such deals might make it tougher for them to break in next time.

IDology, an Atlanta provider of fraud-prevention and identity verification, has made an equity investment in the mobile identity authentication provider Payfone.

To identify fintech startups deserving of special recognition this year as part of the FinTech Forward program, a team of American Banker editors, BAI staff and industry members debated the merits of self-nominees and companies we know.

The collaboration between financial institutions and technology firms runs deep, but banks' recent criticism of lax regulatory oversight for nonbanks reveals fissures.

The marketplace lender is paying $30 million in cash plus an undisclosed amount of stock. It plans to use BillGuard’s apps, which come with detailed information about their users’ financial habits, to attract new borrowers.

The American Bankers Association has planned a financial literacy campaign to help seniors and their caregivers guard against financial fraud.

The smartphone can add significant security to payments, but it is also a tool that fraudsters can exploit. Researchers and scammers have already found several unique attacks that rely on mobile devices.

K2 Intelligence, an adviser on compliance and cybersecurity, has hired a former FBI cryptocurrency expert and a former regulator who worked on New York's digital currency regulations.

Buyout heavyweight Accel-KKR just bought a stake in Banker's Toolbox, a software company that helps community banks flag fraud. The PE firm says it was on the hunt for investments in the compliance space given the regulatory climate.

The fraud detection services provider Feedzai has raised $17.5 million in its Series B financing round.

A New York woman convicted of participating in an identity-theft ring was sentenced Thursday to two to six years in state prison. The ring stole more than $850,000 from hundreds of JPMorgan Chase customers.

As cybercriminals demonstrate their deep knowledge of banks' fraud and security rules, some institutions are deploying software that analyzes customers' and other entities' behavior for abnormalities.

Bank regulators plan to release their self-assessment tool later this quarter to gauge institutions' cyber readiness, but many see it as sign of more prescriptive measures down the road.

Jacob Dienelt, a former financial adviser at Morgan Stanley, has joined Factom, a cryptocurrency tech startup, as its head treasurer.

Malicious software that blows past antivirus software undetected, combined with sophisticated social engineering (i.e. tricking employees of bank customers into divulging information), have enabled criminals to steal $500,000 to $1 million at a time, security experts say.

A stolen company laptop has left customers of Pioneer Savings Bank vulnerable, according to a consumer alert from the New York State Department of Financial Services.