Mastercard, a leading payments giant, has revealed its latest weapon in the fight against fraudulent transactions: Decision Intelligence Pro. The proprietary generative artificial intelligence model, exclusively developed by Mastercard, aims to empower thousands of banks within its network to swiftly detect and thwart fraudulent activities.
Ajay Bhalla, President of Mastercard’s cyber and intelligence business unit, said, “We are using the transformer models which basically help get the power of generative AI.” He added, “It’s all built in-house, we’ve got all kinds of data from the ecosystem. Because of the very nature of the business we are in, we see all the transaction data which comes to us from the ecosystem.”
Drawing insights from a vast pool of data from approximately 125 billion transactions processed annually through Mastercard’s network, the algorithm focuses on understanding relationships between merchants rather than textual inputs. By analyzing a cardholder’s transaction history and predicting likely merchant visits, the AI swiftly generates pathways to assess the legitimacy of transactions.
Mastercard’s algorithm operates at lightning speed, delivering results in just 50 milliseconds. It assigns a score to each transaction, with higher scores indicating adherence to typical cardholder behavior and lower scores raising red flags for potential fraud.
Bhalla emphasized that this innovative transaction technology can enhance financial institutions’ fraud detection rates by up to 20%, with some cases showing remarkable improvements of up to 300%.
With over $7 billion invested in cybersecurity and AI technologies over the past five years, Mastercard continues to reinforce its commitment to combating fraud. This investment includes strategic acquisitions such as purchasing Swedish cybersecurity firm Baffin Bay Networks in March 2023.
While Mastercard leads the charge in AI-driven fraud prevention, competitors like Visa have also made significant strides. Visa recently established a $100 million venture fund supporting generative AI startups.
Mastercard envisions its advanced AI model as a tool to enhance fraud detection and anticipate future fraud trends. By leveraging insights from its vast global ecosystem, Mastercard aims to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensure the security of digital transactions worldwide.
As the payments industry increasingly turns to AI-driven solutions, Mastercard’s Decision Intelligence Pro stands out as a game-changer in the ongoing battle against fraud.
