Brankas, Element advance online fraud detection in open finance

BY RODERICK L. ABAD Contributor

AFTER losing $260 million to digital scams in 2019, online fraud continues to emerge as a top critical enterprise risk for Southeast Asian businesses. In the Philippines alone, such cases jumped in the logistics sector by 236 percent in the second quarter of 2022 from a year ago; telecommunications, up by 45 percent; and gambling digital fraud rose by 32 percent.

With this in mind, Brankas, the leading global open finance technology provider, and Element Inc., the privacy-led, modern artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer in digital identity services used to verify a person´s information quickly and seamlessly, have banded to introduce an additional layer of security to detect potential frauds.

Specifically, they have partnered in the open finance product, called the Brankas Direct, which is now available in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Through this, businesses can replace manual bank transfers as a checkout option, allow direct e-wallet top-ups, and expedite loan repayments to multiple banks via a single flow.

In addition, they have tied up for the Brankas Open Core, which enables a seamless onboarding process for customers opening new bank accounts, or Loan Management Solutions using the core banking suite of Brankas.

“Element has the most comprehensive eKYC [Electronic Know Your Customer] offering in the region, localized for specific markets. Their liveness check products and connectivity central databases for identity checks can make Brankas’ Open Banking products more fraud-proof,” said Brankas chief executive officer (CEO) and Cofounder Todd Schweitzer.

FOR many of us, life now has been divided into two eras: pre-pandemic and the present. But there was an in-between—the dark days when we all didn’t know what was going to happen and we were counting infections and fatalities.

During the pandemic, specifically during ECQ and GECQ days, one of the things I looked forward to was the buying and selling of photo cards and other K-pop related merchandise on Twitter every Friday. It meant several hours of fun. It was less about buying and more about forgetting the troubles and uncertainties most of us had during that period.

Pre-pandemic, we would pay for online purchases by making bank deposits or via express payment methods. We would ask someone to do it for us and

Well, in the midst of all that online buying and selling during the pandemic, everyone realized how convenient GCash was. You didn’t even have to be a Globe subscriber. You could be a subscriber of the other network and still have a GCash e-wallet. Pretty soon, we all had GCash. Every online seller, owner of a small stall in the mall, Grab driver and rider, and delivery people now have GCash. In the online shopping milieu, GCash payment reigns supreme. Last week, I was with my boss and a delivery person called her. She had a delivery from an e-commerce platform and it was supposed to be COD. She simply told the delivery person, as she was out of the house, “Let me send you the payment via GCash.” And it was done. I no longer go on my Friday night Twitter buying sprees but will always remember those times with a smile.

GCash is now very much a part of our lives, even post-pandemic. We even pay our utilities bills via GCash. As of March 2022, GCash had an average of 60 million users. This accounts for about 83 percent of the adult population in the Philippines.

Aside from hassle-free payments, GCash has

GCash has launched the “#GCashStories—Mga Kwento ng Pag-asa at Pag-asenso” campaign to encourage Filipinos to come forward with their heartwarming GCash stories. “With over 70 million people using GCash, we have millions of stories to tell. Every story, big or small, is a story worth telling because they are stories of progress and hope. It’s the story of how GCash has helped millions of Filipinos. It’s my story, it’s your story, it’s our story together,” said Neil Trinidad, chief marketing officer at GCash The #GCashStories digital series features modernday stories of progress, showing how Filipinos have improved their way of life with GCash. The series begins with the story of Cocoy Rubio, who lost his job as a bartender during the pandemic. Cocoy’s GCash story shows how he began his journey after being laid off to become an entrepreneur with his very own The Bike Coffee business in Cagayan De Oro. The film highlights how Cocoy used GCash to pay for his supplies and even applying for capital via GLoan, which provides fast, safe and affordable cash loans.

SEE “E-WALLETS,” A9