A whitepaper by the Emerging Payments Association (EPA) has detailed that a stronger focus on digital identity could help combat soaring cases of financial crime.
The whitepaper – titled Financial Crime, Payment Fraud and the Role of Digital Identity – was published in collaboration with Refinitiv and underlines how criminals are able to profit from financial crime and commit payment fraud through using the latest technologies as well as looking into how fraud controls can be bettered.
Topics the whitepaper covered included the primary emerging threats in financial crime such as risks relating to increased contactless limits, synthetic identities, botnet attacks, and the rising data volume that is available to criminals. With these issues considered, the report found that digital identity could solve many of the issues in financial crime – but it is not the complete answer.
Of the individuals who were interviewed for the research, many of the payment professionals claimed that they felt the lack of a national digital identity service was a key obstacle in tackling financial crime and fraud.
The whitepaper highlighted that a key topic of focus was investigating the possibility for digital identity as a secure foundation layer to reduce financial crime and payment fraud
EPA director general Tony Craddock said, “Occurrences of financial crime are soaring, and we are staring down the barrel of a fraud-shaped gun unless we as an industry start working to get these numbers under control. Along with data sharing and better collaboration, one of the key findings of the research was that digital identity will play a critical role in this going forward, providing a secure foundation layer to prevent crime upfront and on an ongoing basis.”
EPA Project Financial Crime leader Jane Jee added, “Criminals understand how they can profit from financial crime and commit payment fraud as evidenced by the escalating number of attacks and levels of losses incurred.
“I find it worrying how they are now working closer than ever before, in effect creating a crime marketplace and adopting the latest technologies. Promisingly, as our research highlights, some initiatives are making a real difference and it suggests how are industry must work together more going forward.”
The whitepaper can be read in full here.
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