Clari5

A ‘Yin and Yang’ Approach to Growing Topline and Bottom-line

How To Monetize your Anti-Fraud Solution to Make Money for you

Yin and Yang blogsIn Chinese philosophy,   yin and yang (also yin-yang or yin yang, ‘dark-bright’) explains how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world.

This intriguing idea actually applies perfectly in the context of banking, if we were to see the yin as saving money (from losses) and the yang as making money (from sales).

The fundamental principle is that the very same investment in data analytics and real-time decisioning for detecting/preventing fraud can be monetized for earning more revenues.

Imagine an intelligent system that understands customers’ behavioral patterns to detect and prevent fraud is also creating precise personas for marketing teams to target.

This is because the same extreme real-time, context-aware logic/approach used to combat cross-channel fraud can also help enable intelligent, hyper-precise targeted and contextual customer engagements.

At the heart of the hypothesis lies the fact that banks have the ‘soul’ of the customer.

Customer flowBanking is the only industry where the entire life of the customer flows through it. A bank knows how much its customers earn, where they live, where they travel to, how much they spend, who’s part of the family, whether they own their home, even how much fuel they put in the car.

No other industry (not even telco or retail) has this very special privilege of having a 360 degree view of a customer’s life. Only banks have the advantage and ability to actually convert this ‘resident intel’ to their benefit.

A real-time, enterprise-wide, cross-channel fraud management solution requires that every banking transaction is available in memory in real-time.

But since only a relatively small percentage of transactions are fraudulent and since the data is available in the system memory, the bank can run positive scenarios in real-time after having assigned fraud risk to certain transactions during the negative-scenario test-run.

Absolute real-timeThe solution can use the same data captured per transaction and analyze the spending and behavior patterns to throw up potential cross-sell and up-sell scenarios in absolute real-time.

Precise data analytics on behavior patterns helps create intelligent and efficiently targeted customer interactions and campaigns to grow the topline.

So while the solution helps the bank’s larger enterprise fraud management initiatives with …

  • A unified case management system for fraud/AML investigation with 360-degree view of behavior across products and channels in one single place.
  • Extreme real-time, context-aware, cross-channel fraud detection and prevention.
  • Monitoring financial and non-financial transactions of customers, accounts, users and employees across branch and channel transactions in real-time to detect suspicious fraud and respond with the right decision in real-time and generate alerts for investigation.
  • Monitoring Salary Accounts’ to identify increase in Salary Credits or non-usage of Salary Accounts.

… it can also be used for –

  • Tracking customers’ POS/E-com channels transactions for generating extreme real-time, as-of-the-moment cross-sell and up-sell alerts.
  • Identifying customers who usually travel internationally and offering them custom products in real-time.
  • Creating customer delight in branch and digital transactions.

So altogether the bank benefits from a –

  • Smart, intelligent, extreme real-time solution that manages fraud detection/prevention as well as enables customer revenue maximization.
  • Non-invasive, bolt-on solution that integrates seamlessly with source systems and reduces TCO.
  • Lowered cost of compliance of fraud and AML regulatory requirements.
  • Single, unified platform that helps protects the bottom-line and grows topline.

Unified Fraud ManagementWhile there may not be many solutions that have the ability to see topline and bottom-line as 2 sides of the same coin, CustomerXPs’ Clari5 seems to one. Its unified fraud management platform leverages the same context-aware, real-time decisioning to enable real-time customer cross/upsell.

Clari5 handles exceptionally large data volumes across multiple channels and source systems in real-time, and processes transactional as well as non-transactional events in real-time and applies over 150 rules to generate alerts in real-time that can be leveraged for both fraud management as well as revenue enhancement.

Banks get to use the same real-time insights that helps combat fraud to also generate profits because the approach that uses the same fundamental logic to protect/save money (curb fraud losses) is also being used to make money (upsell / cross sell).

If banks can view their topline and bottom-line as the yin and yang of their operations, then a single solution that helps achieve both can very well be the proverbial one stone designed to kill two birds.

Episode 3: Inside Job

Our new series of thrillers – produced and directed by CustomerXPs and Banking Technology – narrate the tales of the fight between the forces of good (the Clari5 analytics and anti-fraud software) and the forces of evil. Based on real events and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat!

May of the current year.

Her addiction was getting the better of her. “Absolutely Irresistible”, the new fragrance from Givenchy, was calling out to her. And those gorgeous Prada shoes had been winking at her from the shop front for the last three weeks.

“Man, I could kill for those.” “It’s been a while; I really need to find the dosh.” 

Georgina bit her lower lip with these thoughts swirling in her head like the steam from her coffee. She looked at the accounts’ list. Could she get a hold of one “dormant” account?

“Can Lady Luck please be kind? Am desperate, please!”

“Hey Georgina, how’s it going? Getting used to retail banking?”

“Hi Mark. Yeah, it’s different from corporate banking for sure. I miss the thrill of big numbers. That rush of working with millions instead of thousands. Ha ha ha.” 

“Hmm. So no new Gucci bag or a Marc Jacobs watch? The shops must be crying out for Your Shopaholic Majesty to give them time of day.”

“Mmm….yes, it’s been a while. Thanks for reminding me, must rectify that soon. He he.” 

Mark shrugs, gives a wry smile, a quizzical look and walks away.

She paused mid-way while taking a huge bite from her BLT sandwich. Her eyes widened. The $25,000 winked at her seductively. Money was her one and only love, her manna. She quickly hit her keyboard. Joshua Hamilton, checking account, “dormant”.

Was this her lucky day or what?

Georgina pushed her sandwich aside and quickly hit a few keys. “Active” flashed on her monitor. Joshua Hamilton was now “active”.

“Gucci, Prada, Jimmy Choo, here I come… yoo hoo!” Georgina thought to herself. A wicked smile, a faraway look and Georgina was revelling in the idea of big numbers. Her heart was thumping with excitement.

“It’s going to happen. Finally. I can sleep at night and don’t need any Xanax.”

Clari5 was rifling through the list of accounts doing its customary check. Sorting accounts by status, keeping a watchful eye on transactions by account holders and being its usual Poirot self – generally keeping an eagle eye on the safety and security of data, accounts, transactions and more.

Next, next, next, next, pause! Joshua Hamilton – active. Wait, hang on. Clari5 does an about take. Pause.

Quick flashback to April last year.

Joshua Hamilton was thrilled with life. It seemed to be going as per plan. New job, new city, new role, new life. Whoa!

He had to wind up his life in New York. Give up his apartment, sell his car, get rid of the furniture, among other things. But he decided to retain his bank account. Maybe it was for sentimental reasons, maybe it was just the idea of having monies in an account which he could use during emergencies, he didn’t close the account. He had $25,000 in that account. It felt good to have that kind of money.

His new firm thought it’d be ideal if Joshua opened a salary account with the bank they banked with. Apparently this bank had fantastic services – great paybacks on savings and good customer service as a local bank. Joshua thought why not, and opened a salary account with this new bank.

The $25,000 in his NY bank grew a little more, with interest etc. Zero transactions, zero withdrawals, zero anything. It was “dormant” but doing good.

Cut to present day.

Eyes follow her slow, shamefaced, hand-touching-chin movement out of the office as colleagues stare. Cops behind, cops in front. Her mascara is runny and covers her cheeks like ski tracks on Aspen.

Georgina bites her lips in regret. If only Clari5 hadn’t sounded the alarm, if only it wasn’t so darned smart, if only it didn’t keep track of every financial and non-financial transaction, she’d be wearing her Guccis today and looking like a million bucks. Even Xanax or Prozac wouldn’t be able to help her now, not in a prison cell for sure.

Damn Clari5!

When Joshua Hamilton’s “dormant” account status became “active”, it was instantly marked as suspect, when for over a year there were no transactions on his account.

When Georgina initiated a $10,000 encashment on this account using a withdrawal receipt forged with Joshua’s signature, Clari5’s real-time decisioning engine noted this.

The potential fraud transaction was blocked and generated an alert in the case management system.

And a case of deceit and willful defraudment is slapped on Georgina.

Episode 1: Malafide Intentions 

Episode 2: Blacklisted

Episode 4: Money Rolls

Episode 1: Malafide Intentions​

Our new series of thrillers – produced and directed by CustomerXPs and Banking Technology – narrate the tales of the fight between the forces of good (the Clari5 analytics and anti-fraud software) and the forces of evil. Based on real events and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat!

The alert flashes on the dark screen. His cat nap is disturbed by the “on/off” flashing on the monitor which causes his eyelids to flutter open. He looks at the array of numbers and text that appear to be just a vast, random set of data, for the lay person. But Oliver’s trained eye and keen mind are attuned to pick out anomalies from this data load. Oliver wasn’t called Hawk by his colleagues, the keenest, sharpest AFO (anti-fraud officer) at the Bank of Sentee (BoS) for nothing.

Oliver’s eyes rapidly scan through Michael Hook’s transaction history.

POS 12.30 pm SF, 22.07.16, Starbks
POS 16.30 pm SF, 22.07.16, Movtkts
POS 19.30 pm SF, 22.07.16, Metreon
POS 20.20 pm ABJ, 22.07.16, Fouani Electronics
 – there it was, popping out at him like a girl in a magenta halter in a room full of black tuxedos! Oliver quickly runs a check for country codes and finds ABJ is Abuja, Nigeria.

Oliver’s fingers flew over the keyboard and his eyes scanned through Michael Hook’s transaction history for the past seven days. Come on Clari5, he urged. Clari5, Oliver’s best friend, obliged. Michael Hook’s transactions seemed fine, no anomaly, no suspicious activity. So then what explained Nigeria?

Could Michael, a regular graphic designer, travel from San Francisco to Nigeria, a distance of over 7700 miles in 50 minutes? He ain’t no Superman!

12.30 pm, 22.07.2016, Starbucks, 3595 California Street, San Francisco

“Good afternoon sir, can I take your order?”

“Hi. Mmm… I’ll have a chicken BLT sandwich and a decaf Pike Place coffee, please.”

“Sure. What name shall I add to the order?”

“Michael Hook.”

“Have a seat and we’ll call out your name. Have a good day.”

Michael looked at his Fitbit. 12.33 pm. God! “Is it stuck or is it me?” he wondered. He looked thoughtful as he sat down, his mind unspooling the conversation he had with Jessica in the morning. Sigh! He swiped through his messages. “4.30 show, don’t forget, J.” Her curt response: “Yup.”

He’s got to make it up to her, he loves her too much to lose her. Thoughts swirled in his head like the steam from the coffee mug. Should he buy her something before the movie? A ring? Would she accept?

“Can I afford to get married?”

Technology is a savior. Michael checked his bank account on his smartphone. $10,578. He had the dosh. He felt a sliver of excitement welling up inside of him. Yes, maybe he would surprise Jessica after all. 

16.30 pm, 22.07.2016

Back in office Michael bought two movie tickets at movietickets.com. “Booked for To Steal From A Thief. See you at 6.00 – AMC Metreon,” he texted. “See you” popped up on his phone. Michael continued to look at his text message knowing Jessica was still miffed at him, but his modus operandi was all sorted.

POS 19.30 pm SF, 22.07.16

“Large tub of cheese popcorn and two Diet Cokes, please!”

“That’ll be $5.50. Thank you.”

The counter assistant at the popcorn counter at the Metreon swiped Michael’s card. It’s intermission and Michael wanted to hurry back to Jessica. She seemed to be enjoying the movie. He knew it was all going to be okay.

POS 20.20 pm ABJ, 22.07.16, Fouani Electronics

“Come on Michael,” Oliver muttered under his breath. “Tell me you’re in San Francisco buddy and we’ll be fine, just confirm it man.” But Michael’s phone was on “silent”. He missed the SMS alert completely, and the second one as well.

“Breathe Oliver, it’s okay Oliver, have sent the two alerts to Michael Hook.” Oliver tried to soothe his frayed nerves. All POS transactions checked out. The last one at 20.20 ABJ seemed different. Was Michael in Nigeria? But Michael hadn’t travelled anywhere in the last 12 months! Clari5 confirmed that. Oliver commanded Clari5 to give up Michael’s transaction history for the last six months to double-check. No, nothing. Michael wasn’t a big spender. And neither was he a defaulter. His last big electronics purchase was for a Kindle. Wow!

Oliver checked with Clari5: “do you think it’s a fraudulent transaction?” Clari5 advised Oliver to refuse authorisation of Michael’s card for $2,150 at Fouani Electronics, ABJ. That’s it, Oliver made his decision. He ran a few commands and an SMS was sent to Michael disabling his credit card.

22.00 pm, 22.07.16

Michael looked at the two texts from BoS. His credit card was disabled. At that exact moment his phone rang. “Oliver Pagliace from BoS. Am I speaking with Michael Hook?” 

Two days later at Fiore d’Italia – 20.00 hrs.

“OMG! Really? Oh darling, when did you, I can’t imagine…”

Michael just finished proposing to Jessica. With his credit card.

22.00 hrs, BoS branch, San Francisco, California – 24.07.16

The light from the monitor was blinking. Oliver was just biting into a sandwich. He turned around. Clari5 was at it again. This time it was Dar-es-Salaam.

“Gotcha.”

Episode 2: Blacklisted 

Episode 3: Inside Job

Episode 4: Money Rolls