OCBC, SAS wage war on fraud with automated surveillance system

• Claims the system helped OCBC recover US$5.9mil worth of fraudulent transactions
• System to be rolled out in OCBC branches in SEA by end 2021

OCBC Bank (OCBC) has deployed a fraud surveillance system (FSS) as part of its anti-fraud programme in partnership with software analytics vendor SAS Institute, which the bank claims will reap huge benefits.

In a statement, OCBC said FSS uses a combination of flexible data and network analytics, as well as cutting-edge surveillance techniques, to monitor customer activities and transactions.

OCBC said the pandemic drove a digital banking boom and scammers were quick to cash in on the trend. In Singapore, banking-related scams surged, leaving clients vulnerable to phishing and other means of fraud, it said.

This led to OCBC and SAS collaborating in a phased deployment of FSS as part of the bank’s operational risk management programme to monitor customer activities and transactions, resulting in improved customer experience and operational outcomes.

OCBC said the solution’s capabilities include assisting in the detection, investigative remediation, and analysis of customer fraud exposures using multiple analytic techniques.

This includes predictive modelling, text mining, and network link analysis, amongst others. This allows the system to proactively identify known and unknown patterns, it said.

The FSS also enables monitoring of customers’ transactions and alerts in real-time. Monitoring is done across multiple channels, including ATM, online banking, mobile banking, wire-transfers, as well as corporate transactions, OCBC said.

With FSS, synergies were realised across OCBC’s operations in multiple countries, it added.

As a crucial part of OCBC’s anti-fraud programme, the FSS played a significant role in the recovery of approximately US$5.9 million worth of fraudulent transactions in the first year of production use, and on Singapore activities alone, the bank claimed.

In 2020, OCBC reported that more than US$7.4 million was prevented from falling into the hands of fraudsters through its anti-fraud programme. 

[SGD1 = US$0.74]

Apart from using the latest technology, the bank said it has also expanded the monitoring scope and capabilities of anti-fraud measures, revamped its fraud education programme to strengthen fraud awareness amongst its staff and extended the whistle-blowing programme to the public.

Proactive risk management also remains a core focus, concentrating on vulnerable customer segments, it added.

Its group operational risk team has extended the real-time fraud surveillance coverage to international branches, including its Hong Kong subsidiary, OCBC Wing Hang Bank in April 2021, and OCBC Hong Kong Branch in May 2021.

This system will be made available in OCBC’s branches in Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Vietnam by end 2021