Sibos 25: payments, risk & security

There is a role for banks to play in helping keep digital payments secure beyond just validating recipients, according to Carl Garrett, ANZ’s Head of Global Cross-border Payments.

Speaking to On Air with ANZ Institutional, Garrett said data capabilities in the financial services sector offered them the chance to provide customers with a more informed view on the risk of releasing payments.

“We know that our customers want to be able to confirm that the beneficiary they're making a payment to is indeed who they intend to [pay], and that they haven't been presented to risk themselves,” he said on podcast. “They want to know that they're paying the right counterparty.

“The other piece to bring into the equation is, do we see potential risk associated with that beneficiary?”

ANZ has been working with SWIFT to use artificial-intelligence to help detect fraud in cross-border payments. The project involves banks from all around the world. Utilising observed data, Garrett said, banks are able to check if the sector has “seen problems with that counterparty in the past”.

“That's got to be brought into our broader security and fraud capabilities,” he said.

Garrett made the comments in conversation with David Buckthought, Head of Tech — Payment Services and Digital Assets at ANZ, ahead of the Sibos financial services conference in September. You can listen to the podcast — the first part in a two-part conversation — below.

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Buckthought said protecting payments from threats was a whole-of-industry responsibility.

“I truly believe to protect our customers, it's not a bank play, it's an ecosystem play,” he said.

“Being able to share data between the financial institutions, which Swift is helping [the sector] with on the federated learning pilot… is going to be fundamental for our success.”

For Garrett, that collaboration is vital given the broader network is “only as strong as its weakest link”.

“I think a greater level of collaboration between [banks], and finding the right ways to share information that could be relevant to protecting our customers, is absolutely essential,” he said.

Behavioural data, as well as biometric controls, could also have a role to play in the security space in the future, according to Garrett.

“It's an ecosystem of capabilities that ultimately lead to us having a more globally secure cross-border environment,” he said.

Also touched on the value of partnerships in the payments platform space. Listen to the podcast above to find out more.

Shane White is Editor at ANZ Institutional Insights