BankWAW: Stopping Fraud Before it Happens with Fraud Interceptor

BankWAW is a customer-owned bank with a proud history of serving the communities of North-East Victoria and Southern New South Wales. It is named for the region's three largest towns: Wodonga, Albury, and Wangaratta.

The bank was established as the result of a merger between three credit and co-operative societies in 1970. Through subsequent mergers BankWAW has grown to serve 24,000 members.

BankWAW takes its responsibility as a community-backed bank seriously.  The rise of financial fraud, perpetrated though digital channels, isn't just a BankWAW problem, but a community problem too.

In November 2023, the Australian Banking Association (ABA) and the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) brought banks from around Australia together for the Scam Accord. The Accord holds banks to the highest possible standard in fraud prevention, so they are well-placed to fight today's rapidly evolving fraud environment. Its ultimate goal is to make the Australian financial sector a tougher target for scammers.

Long before the Accord, BankWAW developed a comprehensive fraud prevention strategy to protect its members. To implement it, they rely on Ultradata's Fraud Interceptor.

The Challenge

Stan Vyce is BankWAW's Fraud & Payments Manager.

His role, in a nutshell, is to leverage technology to stop financial fraud, and minimise the damage it does to BankWAW customers.

As the fraud landscape constantly evolves, so too does the task that Stan and his team have in front of them.

In his time as Fraud & Payments Manager, Stan has seen the threat landscape evolve significantly.

The introduction of the Scam Accord, and the regulatory changes set to follow, have put a microscope on financial institutions' ability to address contemporary security risks.

One such challenge is the rise of instant payment technologies, including the New Payments Platform (NPP).

"Like all Australian banks, we've seen a sharp rise in scam attempts in recent years.  The introduction of the NPP and specifically the near-instant delivery of payments to destination accounts reduces the likelihood a fraudulent payment will be recovered, particularly when compared to traditional Direct Entry Payments.

The Scam Accord is a response to this, as it focuses heavily on name-checking technology for NPP payments. As such, I believe there is a risk that the Scam Accord will accelerate the transition to the higher-risk payment channel," said Stan.

With a small team and limited budget, Stan has had to take a hands-on approach to fraud prevention.

"Being a small organisation, BankWAW does not have the luxury of throwing an extensive suite of resources at the Scam Accord,” said Stan.  

With changes on the horizon, BankWAW began the process of adapting to life under the Scam Accord.

The Solution

A key requirement of the Scam Accord, and one that underpins every other requirement, is the development of a comprehensive fraud prevention strategy.

Stan has worked with Ultradata, BankWAW's longtime technology partner, to build a strong platform for fraud prevention. BankWAW has used Fraud Interceptor since 2014. Over the years, Fraud Interceptor has become a key pillar of BankWAW's security, superseding a more diverse, yet less effective, security technology stack.

"We've used a number of different fraud prevention tools that had specialised functionality in tandem with Fraud Interceptor over the years.

No system is perfect, but we've found that Fraud Interceptor offers us a more holistic lens, meaning we could use it to monitor all types of transactions, on all payment channels," said Stan.

With the constant, ever-changing nature of financial fraud, the ability to quickly implement rules is essential to BankWAW's security posture. 

"What I really love about Fraud Interceptor is our ability to write customised rules.

In the past, with other vendors, we’ve had to request they create new rules on our behalf. This results in significant delays from the time we acknowledge the need for a rule to the time it’s implemented.  And in that time, fraudsters continue to exploit the vulnerability," said Stan.

Fraud Interceptor's 24/7, end-to-end fraud prevention solution acts as a crucial extension of BankWAW's fraud and payments team.

The Result

Fraud Interceptor has ensured BankWAW can continue to provide the most secure environment for their customers, stopping fraud before it happens. 

"Sadly, fraud and scams are a huge growth area. As a community bank, the trust our customers place in us is our competitive advantage. Fraud prevention is essential to maintaining that trust."

Fraud Interceptor isn't just a tool we use to help us with fraud prevention, it is the key pillar of our fraud prevention strategy," said Stan.

With Fraud Interceptor in place, Stan, is confident in the platform's ability to meet the Scam Accord requirements.

"When the Scam Accord was announced, we engaged with COBA on our capacity to meet the Scam Accord's requirements.

Having gone through that review process, I am 100% confident that the Fraud Interceptor can address the transaction monitoring and control requirements within the Scam Accord ," said Stan.

Stan and his team don't have to go it alone either. The Ultradata team works closely with BankWAW to ensure that the Fraud Interceptor remains fit for purpose, with the ability of good support.

“When we need support figuring out how to implement certain functionality within Fraud Interceptor, there're people at Ultradata who will keep pulling the thread with you until we have a functional solution."

With new challenges and regulations on the horizon, Fraud Interceptor ensures BankWAW's people, customers, and community remain shielded from financial fraud.