Author: David Penn

Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking

Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Tinkoff Credit Systems

It is a truism that consumers increasingly expect all of their digital interactions to have the same top quality user experience they have come to expect from the likes of Uber, Amazon, and Netflix. So it is little surprise to see Russian fintech innovator, Tinkoff Bank take a page from the world of social media to make it easier to educate and market to its customers.

Tinkoff Stories provides “fascinating themed collections and practical tips for any occasion,” according to the company. Similar to the Stories feature on Instagram and Snapchat, Tinkoff’s solution gives the bank yet another way to reach not just the one million people who regularly use the company’s mobile app, but also the company’s entire six million customer base. Tinkoff Stories is one of the major upgrades to the company’s mobile app, which is available for download at the iTunes App Store. Tinkoff also added an Invite Your Friend section, enabling users to recommend the app to friends and earn bonuses.

“Stories is a great way for us to bring a range of content to our users,” VP of Mobile for Tinkoff Bank Maxim Yevdokimov explained, “both to make them aware of new products as we introduce them and functionality of the app that they might not be aware of, and to provide informative content from currency rates to tips on managing their personal finances.”

The news of Stories comes as Tinkoff launches its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Tinkoff Mobile. The MVNO will give customers more options when it selecting a mobile plan and will be initially rolled out in the greater Moscow, St. Petersburg regions before expanding to other cities in Russia. “We have strived to create the most convenient, straight-forward and simple-to-use product, and we are offering our customers only the most in-demand services,” Tinkoff Mobile CEO George Chesakov said. “We believe this is precisely what mobile was meant to be.”

Tinkoff demonstrated its Click-to-Meet solution at FinovateFall 2013. Click-to-Meet enables bank customers to apply for credit or debit cards online or by phone and have signable documents and the card delivered to the customer the next day by smart courier at their place of choice. The company was founded in 2006 by entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov. who earned the support of investors including Goldman Sachs, Vostok Nafta, Baring Vostok, and Horizon Capital.

Named Russia’s 2017 “Bank of the Year” by the Banker in November, Tinkoff introduced facial recognition ATMs in August – the same month the company’s mobile app earned top honors in four categories from Markswebb Rank & Report.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, defi Solutions, Jumio, nCino, PayPal, Ripple, Stash, Strands, SuiteBox, Thomson Reuters, Tinkoff Credit Systems

On Finovate.com

  • Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking
  • Meed Leverages ID Verification Solutions from Jumio to Serve the Underbanked

Around the web

  • The 61-member Japan Bank Consortium launches Ripple pilot with South Korean banks Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank.
  • Thomson Reuters adds compliance training courses to help ensure MiFID II compliance.
  • PayPal makes undisclosed investment in Berlin-based deposit marketplace Raisin.
  • ACI Worldwide partners with HyperPay to bring real-time fraud prevention solutions to ecommerce merchants in the MENA region.
  • SME Finance Forum honors Strands with Best Partnership award at its First Membership Engagement Awards event.
  • nCino EVP of Product Development Trisha Price joins Jim Marous’ fintech roundtable to discuss the future of digital banking disruption.
  • Stash Invest presents its Auto-Stash feature to help investors make automatic, recurring investment contributions.
  • SuiteBox introduces its VideoSign Proof of Signature technology.
  • defi SOLUTIONS earns recognition as one of the top 100 fastest-growing privately-held businesses in Dallas, Texas area.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service

Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Malauzai

With more than $2 billion in total assets, North Carolina’s Southern Bank will leverage its deployment of Malauzai’s Picture Pay to provide its customers with a new digital payment option: Photo Billpay.

“Providing our customers with modern, digital payment tools is a priority for the bank,” Sondra McCorquodale, SVP and alternative delivery channel manager at Southern Bank said. McCorquodale highlighted the importance of giving customers “easy to use” self-service channels, and offering a variety of payment options as “key to providing a superior customer experience and in turn … a significant competitive advantage.”

Southern Bank, which has been a Malauzai partner for years, said that it has seen a 20 percent gain in customer usage of all digital payments and an increase of 38 percent in the average value of money movement transactions. Southern Bank has deployed a variety of additional money management features including remote deposit capture (RDC) and P2P transfer.

“Mobile-based money movement features like PicturePay, RDC, A2A, and P2P are growing in demand and popularity,” Malauzai CPO Robb Gaynor said, “whatever we can do to help our customers like Southern Bank have access to the latest innovations and stay competitive, we fully support.”

Malauzai’s PicturePay technology was developed in collaboration with Allied Payment. The technology was designed to serve as a stand-alone mobile billpay solution that is mobile banking provider agnostic. PictuePay is compatible with any core banking system or mobile platform and requires no technology integration.

“The simplicity of Picture Pay makes it ideal as a stand-alone application that runs separately from a bank or credit union’s current mobile banking app,” Allied Payment Network president Ralph Marcuccilli said. “We have received a tremendous response to the Picture Pay product offering and wanted to accommodate these institutions quickly without waiting for other mobile vendors to develop their own product.”

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Malauzai Software demonstrated its Conversational Banking for Businesses solution at FinovateFall 2017. Also this fall, the company announced that Somerset Trust would extend its deployment of the MalauzaiOne digital banking platform to retail customers. Colorado’s Public Service Credit Union (PSCU), with more than $2.3 billion in assets, completed its rollout of MalauzaiOne in August. And earlier this year, the company collaborated with payment processing giant Vantiv to introduce a youth spending solution called Family Manager: SmartKid Control.

With more than $24 million in funding, Malauzai includes Wellington Management and Live Oak Banking Company among its investors. The company was founded by Danny Piangerelli (CTO) and Tom Shen (CEO and Chairman of the Board).

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bluefin Payment Systems, Credit Karma, Malauzai, payworks, Quovo, Realty Mogul, Ripple

On Finovate.com

  • Ripple Establishes Infrastructure Innovation Initiative.
  • Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service.

Around the web

  • Credit Karma announces former Renew Financial president Gannesh Bharadhwaj as general manager of credit cards.
  • Payworks extends partnership with Verifone.
  • Bluefin issues first Japanese patent for creating fingerprints for encryption devices.
  • RealtyMogul hires Soley Van Lokeren as its first Chief People Officer.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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eToro to Build Blockchain-Based Social Trading Products in Partnership with CoinDash

eToro to Build Blockchain-Based Social Trading Products in Partnership with CoinDash
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: eToro

With bitcoin futures hitting the market this week, we should have guessed that the social trading innovators at eToro would find a way of further leveraging their unique approach to trading to the burgeoning bitcoin market. And so we were pleasantly not surprised to learn that eToro has partnered with cryptocurrency portfolio management specialist, CoinDash, to develop a suite of blockchain-based products for social trading.

“Until this point, investors in cryptocurrencies have mostly been members of a niche community,” eToro CEO Yoni Assia said. “The learning curve is steep and the market moves quickly. With thousands of new coins in the market, it can be difficult for mainstream investors to navigate this new space. The CoinDash team is enabling users to better analyze their investments in cryptocurrencies, and to learn from others.”

“The eToro team has had great success in developing and scaling social trading platforms, and pioneering innovative new ideas like Copy Trading. We look forward to tapping the knowledge they have made available to us to ensure we can have the same great impact for our community,” CoinDash CEO Alan Muroch said.

eToro’s global marketplace for traders of currencies, commodities, indices, and CFD stocks supports more than 4.5 million users in more than 170 countries. Investors and traders alike can take advantage of eToro’s diverse community, using the wisdom and actual market transactions of the community’s more talented members to make better trading and investing decisions for themselves. This includes features like eToro’s CopyTrader, which enables automatic duplication of another user’s trading and investing decisions, and thematic investing with eToro’s Top Trader CopyFunds and Market CopyFunds products.

A member of the European Fintech 100, eToro has raised more than $72 million in funding and includes CommerzVentures GmbH, Spark Capital, Social Leverage, BRM Capital, and Cubit Investments among its investors. In September, eToro announced it would offer access to five cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and Ripple – the latter three previously supported only through its Crypto CopyFund, which was launched in July. The company demonstrated its CopyFunds for Partners solution at FinovateEurope 2017, winning Best of Show. Founded in 2007, eToro is headquartered in London.

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Bluefin Buddies Up: Decryptx P2PE Network Grows to 50+ Connected Partners

Bluefin Buddies Up: Decryptx P2PE Network Grows to 50+ Connected Partners
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bluefin Payment Systems

Bluefin Payment Systems announced this week that its PCI-validated, P2PE (point-to-point encryption) network, Decryptx, has expanded to more than 50 connected partners. The company says that it expects its roster of payment gateways, processors, and software platforms to grow to 60 by the end of the year.

“We proved the value of the Decryptx platform with our first partners – who were security trailblazers in recognizing the importance of PCI P2PE to their clients,” Bluefin Head of Global Sales, Greg Cornwell said. “Starting in mid-2016, interest in joining our Decryptx network grew significantly.” Cornwell added that many of the largest gateway and processing companies are Decryptx partners.

Bluefin Payments Systems first introduced its Decryptx technology in the fall of 2014. The company was the first North American provider to earn PCI validation for its P2PE solution, and only one of four companies in the world at the time with that validation. The goal was to provide a PCI-validated P2PE solution without forcing providers to abandon their payment processors. The idea developed to decouple payment processing and P2PE and instead offer P2PE via partner payment gateways, processors, and software providers. The result was Decryptx, Bluefin’s Decryption-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform.

“Decryptx provides any processor, gateway, or integrated software provider, globally, the ability to extend the security, cost benefits, and reduced PCI scope of Bluefin’s PCI-validated P2PE solution directly to their clients,” Bluefin Chief Strategy Officer Ruston Miles explained, “with no change in the processor relationship and no change in how merchants accept payments today.” Rusten pointed to three things the company’s partners sought most from the technology: “increased margins, move market-share, and reduce merchant attrition.”

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Bluefin Payment Systems participated in our inaugural developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. At the conference, Bluefin’s Chief Strategy Officer Ruston Miles and Chief of Engineering Tim Barnett presented Bluefin, Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), showing how the technology can reduce the scope of card data environment and related PCI requirements.

Last month, Bluefin launched its PCI P2PD sub-listing option for Decryptx partners. This enables partners to list their own branded solution under Bluefin’s master listing on the PCI SSC website. The option makes it easier for the P2PE offering to transition to the partner’s product line, boosting merchant adoption. Named to the Technology Association of Georgia’s Top 40 Most Innovative Technology Companies for 2017 in February, Bluefin has raised $6 million in funding and includes Camden Partners, Napier Park Global Capital, and Goldman Sachs among its investors.

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TransferTo Adds Digital Wallet to Payments Network via Cellum Partnership

TransferTo Adds Digital Wallet to Payments Network via Cellum Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: TransferTo

Courtesy of a new strategic partnership, European mobile wallet provider Cellum will provide its international money transfer services by way of TransferTo’s cross-border mobile payments network. “Cellum is always looking at ways to expand its portfolio with meaningful services that allow us to offer even more value to our partners,” Cellum CEO János Kóka said. “Our strategic partnership with TransferTo strengthens our position as the one-stop mobile wallet provider of choice in Southeast Asia and beyond.”

“We are happy to collaborate with Cellum and open the doors for their partners to reach our global network, and look forward to the opportunity of expansion by adding further digital wallet providers,” TransferTo CEO Peter De Caluwe added.

Founded in 2006, TransferTo enables FIs and digital financial service providers around the world to offer international mobile airtime top-ups and money transfers to and from emerging countries. TransferTo’s real-time network reaches more than 135 countries, connecting mobile money operators, wallet providers, and money transfer operators with banks, FIs, NGOs, and e-commerce merchants.

The company demonstrated its Mobile Money Hub at FinovateFall 2015. Last month, TransferTo and banking software provider Fern Software were awarded a grant from the United Nations Capital Development Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformation (SHIFT) Challenge Fund. The goal of the fund is to use remittances to improve the financial lives of women in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Also in November, TransferTo announced the hire of a new VP for Business Development, Djibril Diallo, to lead operations in West and Central Africa, and added a new Chief Financial Officer, Dan Gardner, who is a former executive at Transfast and Payscout.

This fall, TransferTo reported 8x revenue growth in international money transfer transactions over the past six months with more than six million transactions. The company partnered with South East Asia’s leading mobile ride-hailing platform, Grab, to facilitate real-time earnings payouts for Grab drivers, and teamed up with IN Switch to support international money transfer services in Latin America.

TransferTo has raised $6.5 million in funding and includes STC Ventures and Ingenico Healthcare/e-ID among its investors. Peter De Caluwe, the company’s current CEO, joined the company in May as global Chief Operating Officer and was promoted to chief executive in August when TransferTo founder Eric Barbier transitioned to the role of President and board member. The company is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Dubai, London, and Miami.

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Fintech News from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateMiddleEast 2018, Thomson Reuters

As Finovate prepares for its first conference in the Middle East, here’s a round up of recent fintech news and need-to-knows from the MENA region. Learn more about how to join us in Dubai in February for FinovateMiddleEast.

  • Al Baraka Banking Group partners with Path Solutions to deploy iMAL Islamic core banking system.
  • UAE Exchange to launch gocash card and mobile app courtesy of partnership with online travel firm, Cleartrip
  • Thomson Reuters celebrates 150 years in the Middle East and North Africa at event in Egypt

MENA Fintech Fact In the Middle East and North Africa, nearly three out of every four fintech startups are based in four countries: the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, or Lebanon. Half of all MENA fintechs launched after 2012.

  • Online real estate marketplace and KPMG Global Fintech Top 50 member Wealth Migrate opens office in UAE, announces new country CEO, Lee-Ann Rush.
  • Group Chairman and CEO of Path Solutions, Mohammed Kateeb, named to World’s Top 50 Most Influential Leaders in Islamic Economy for third consecutive year.

Thought Leadership  Fintech is the new oil in the Middle East and North Africa – Forbes looks at how regulators and governments in the MENA region are “thinking more deeply about the impact that fintech companies will have on the broader economy.”

  • Entrepreneur Middle East features investor forecasts for the MENA region in 2018.
  • Alrajih Islamic Bank for Investment and Financing chooses Islamic core banking system iMAL from Path Solutions.
  • Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG), Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain (KFH-B), and Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) form fintech consortium, Algo Bahrain, to build Sharia-compliant banking solutions.

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Financeit Recapitalizaton Gives Goldman Sachs Majority Stake

Financeit Recapitalizaton Gives Goldman Sachs Majority Stake
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinanceIt, Funding

Point-of-sale financing provider Financeit completed an investment round today with existing shareholder Goldman Sachs. The round gives the firm a majority stake in the Toronto-based fintech.

Michael Garrity, CEO and President of Financeit, said the investment was a sign of Goldman Sachs’ “continued confidence in our leadership team, our business model, our platform, and the ability to grow our service.” He highlighted the recent integration with Centah, a SaaS workflow and lead management solutions provider, as an opportunity to expand into the home improvement industry “from lead generation to closing the sale.”

Financeit helps merchants increase closing rates and transaction sizes by enabling them to offer customers affordable monthly or bi-weekly payment plans. The cloud-based technology provides a fast and transparent application process for consumers, and helps merchants better manage cashflow, get paid sooner, and offer customers additional payment options. Financeit is free to use, and requires no merchant fees.

But Financeit adds a twist. “We service the transaction on both sides,” Garrity explained during his Finovate demo. “On one side we have a set of merchant partners who rely on us to power sales at the point-of-sale every day with our innovative solutions. On the other side, we have a set of financial institutions who rely on us to originate and to manage these loans on their behalf in their name and within their compliance framework.”

Financeit most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014, during which the company, in partnership with fellow Finovate alum FIS, launched its U.S.-compliant POS financing platform. Founded in 2011, Financeit was named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list in July and in June, the company received new funding capacity of $85 million from a “major Canadian life insurance company.” Since inception, the company has worked with more than 7,000 merchant partners in Canada and processed more than $2.5 billion in loan applications.

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BLUERUSH Introduces New CEO and Director Steve Taylor

BLUERUSH Introduces New CEO and Director Steve Taylor
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BLUERUSH

Steve Taylor will take the reins at BLUERUSH, the company announced today. Taylor, a current BLUERUSH director, replaces Larry Lubin who will remain with the firm as President and as a director.

“Since getting involved in Bluerush I have become increasingly impressed with the team and the market opportunity for the Digital Reach and Individeo platforms,” Taylor said. “We are now beginning to put the sales, marketing, and R&D elements in place to accelerate the transformation of Bluerush into a SaaS business.”

Additionally, Round 13 Capital co-founder John Eckert will join BLUERUSH’s board of directors. Round 13 contributed to the company’s recent fundraising effort along with the Capital Founders Fund.

Above: BLUERUSH President Larry Lubin demonstrating Individeo at FinovateFall 2017.

“I am very excited to have Steve Taylor on board as the CEO and John Eckert join our Board,” Lubin said. “Steve has been instrumental in helping us develop a roadmap that will help us grow our recurring revenues and he will be in an even better position to drive this as the CEO.”

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, BLUERUSH demonstrated its Individeo platform at FinovateFall 2017. Individeo leverages big data visualization to produce personalized videos that help financial services customers better understand their financial options. Also active in healthcare and media verticals, the company’s flagship solution, Digital Reach, gives sales and marketing professionals personalization, distribution, and tracking of content, providing a high level of control over how content is distributed and to whom.

In October, the company announced a $1.3 million fundraising, featuring participation from Round 13 and Capital Founders Fund, as well as now-CEO Steve Taylor. BLUERUSH is a publicly-traded company on the TSVX under the ticker symbol “BTV” and has a market capitalization of $5 million.

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Backbase 6 Features New Digital Banking Backend, Open Banking and PSD2 Readiness

Backbase 6 Features New Digital Banking Backend, Open Banking and PSD2 Readiness
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase

Just in time for the holidays, Backbase has released version 6 of its next generation digital banking platform. The enhancements include a cloud native architecture, digital banking accelerators, a new digital banking backend, a new entitlements product line, and what Backbase VP of Product Management Jelmer de Jong called “an API architecture ready for the Open Banking and PSD2 future.”

“Backbase continues to lead the digital banking revolution, driving modernization and innovation to accelerate digital transformation in all key banking segments,” he said. The company made the announcement at its annual customer conference, Backbase Connect last month.

Above: Backbase Global Head of Solutions Engineering Tim Rutten (left) and CEO and founder Jouk Pleiter (right) demonstrating Your Everyday Bank at FinovateEurope 2017.

The release of Backbase 6 is the result of two years of collaboration and beta testing with the company and its customers and partners. Among the major new features of Backbase 6 are:

  • Ready-to-go Banking
  • Digital Banking Services
  • Backbase Entitlements
  • Dynamics Forms / Dynamic Case Management
  • Experience Manager
  • Cloud Native Architecture
  • PSD2 and Open Banking-Ready APIs
  • Comprehensive SDKs

During his Backbase Connect presentation, de Jong highlighted a number of Backbase 6 features, including retargeting, which enables FIs to use offline resources in a customer database to engage clients with more targeted offers and services. “These capabilities enable banks and credit unions across the globe to reach their full digital potential anytime, anywhere, on any device,” de Jong said. The platform has been available to Backbase customers since late November, and customers can determine when and how to adopt and upgrade their systems on their own schedule.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Backbase demonstrated its Everyday Bank concept, in which banks and other FIs can remove friction from low-value interactions and transactions and “amplify” higher-value ones. A multiple-time Best of Show winner, Backbase announced last month that France’s mobile-only Orange Bank had gone live with Backbase’s Omnichannel Banking platform. Earlier this year, the company partnered with fellow Finovate alum eWise, bringing account aggregation to Backbase clients via its Open Banking Marketplace.

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Simility Adds PayPal as Strategic Investor in Latest $17.5 Million Fundraising

Simility Adds PayPal as Strategic Investor in Latest $17.5 Million Fundraising
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Simility

Fraud and risk management innovator Simility locked in $17.5 million in new funding today. The Series B was led by Accel and featured a strategic investment from fellow Finovate alum, PayPal. “This latest funding round will enable us to enter our next phase of growth by bolstering our world-class team of industry veterans in sales, customer success and data science to meet market demand,” Simility co-founder and CEO Rahul Pangam said.

Current investors The Valley Fund and Trinity Ventures also participated in the round, which brings Simility’s total capital to $25 million. Team members from Simility shared their thoughts on the funding and the future of the company in a blog post this morning.

“My team has helped turn our visionary idea into leads among banking customers,” Head of Latin America Sales Paulo Moura wrote. “This second round of funding means more to us than money; it’s also the touching realization that we’ve earned investors’ confidence in our viability as a company, not just a promising startup.”

Above: Simility Head of Engineering Ravi Sandepudi (left) and CTO/Co-Founder Kedar Samant (right) during their presentation “Fraud Mutates – Detect, Understand, and Block It” at FinDEVr London 2017.

“Everything follows from a great team, I’ve learned,” Simility co-founder and CTO Kedar Samant added. “This new funding round will empower Simility to grow our teams and scale up our operations so that more enterprises can better manage fraud and risk.”

Recent news from Simility only underscores the company’s commitment to adding talent. Simility hired Mick Martin as VP of Sales, named Glenn Cobb as VP of Solution Engineering in August, and brought onboard Lynn Strand as VP of Marketing – all in Q3 of this year. The company noted that today’s investment will enable it to grow its sales operations in the U.S., Brazil, and Europe, as well as expand its data science teams in Europe, and add to partnerships in Europe and India.

Founded in 2014, Simility is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. This summer at our developers conference FinDEVr London, Simility’s Kedar Samant (co-founder and CTO) and Ravi Sandepudi (Head of Engineering) led a presentation titled Fraud Mutates – Detect, Understand and Block It which explained how feature engineering and real-time fraud detection pipelines gives businesses the ability to adapt to evolving cyber threats.

Simility’s technology was featured in Network World’s New Products of the Week in March, the same month Simility unveiled its AI-powered Adaptive 3-D Secure solution. Adaptive 3-D Secure is designed to identify high-risk transactions, leveraging machine learning to examine a wide variety of attributes in real-time, including device fingerprinting, geolocation, and in-session behavioral analytics.

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