Swift to Launch AI-Powered Fraud Defence to Enhance Cross-Border Payments

Swift today announced that it is rolling out new AI-enhanced fraud detection to help the global payments industry step up its defence as bad actors grow increasingly sophisticated. Available from January 2025, the service is the result of extensive collaboration with banks from around the world and a successful pilot earlier this year.

The new capability builds on Swift’s existing Payment Controls Service — used by many small and medium-sized financial institutions — by drawing on pseudonymised data from the billions of transactions that flow over the Swift network each year to identify and flag suspicious transactions so that action can be taken in real-time.

The rollout is part of Swift’s broader collaboration with its global community of more than 11,500 banks and financial institutions to test how AI can solve cross-industry challenges. With global industry estimates putting the total cost of fraud in financial services at USD 485 billion in 2023 alone¹, Swift is focused on using AI to give financial institutions stronger and more accurate insights into instances of potentially fraudulent activity.

Jerome Piens, Chief Product Officer at Swift, said: “Bad actors are using increasingly sophisticated tactics to commit financial crime, and the global financial industry needs to raise its defences higher to ensure their customers can continue to transact globally with confidence. Swift has a long track record of supporting our community by staying one step ahead to maintain the security and resilience that our network is known for - and now we’re doing so again by harnessing the latest technology.”

Since February, Swift has been working with leading global financial institutions to explore how federated learning, combined with privacy-enhancing technologies, could enable market participants to share information without revealing their proprietary data. The group has so far developed a number of fraud detection use cases which are set to be tested in a sandbox environment.

The rollout of this enhanced service is a key milestone in Swift’s strategic vision to make end to end international transactions instant and frictionless, while maintaining trust, security and compliance.

"Collaboration across the banking sector is crucial to enhancing fraud detection, and by sharing data and leveraging AI, we empower ourselves to stay ahead. At BNP Paribas, we are fully committed to supporting Swift’s innovative initiative in that regard, as it marks a key step forward in protecting the integrity of our financial ecosystem."
Olivier Nautet, Head of Cybersecurity, BNP Paribas; Nicolas Trimbour, Head of Fraud Prevention, Cash Management, BNP Paribas, and Su Yang, Head of Artificial Intelligence, Transaction Banking, BNP Paribas

“Standard Bank Group, Africa’s biggest bank by assets, has participated in Swift’s initiative for AI fraud detection capability to enhance the security of its customers' transactions. The technology will identify suspicious patterns in real-time, reducing fraud-risk and ensuring a safer banking experience for clients. By leveraging the power of AI, Standard Bank Group reaffirms its commitment to innovation and safeguarding the financial assets of its clients - who are our main asset.”
John McHugh, Head Operations Control – CIB at Standard Bank

About Swift
Swift is a global member owned cooperative and the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance.

Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,500 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While Swift does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world.

As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community’s access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. Swift also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern.

Headquartered in Belgium, Swift’s international governance and oversight reinforces the globally inclusive character of its cooperative structure. Swift’s global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.

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¹ Nasdaq 2024 Global Financial Crime Report

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