Visa actively upgrades security: now it can prevent fraud in "near real-time"

Visa continues its course of strengthening fraud detection through investments in modelling software. The global payments network states that now it is detecting over twice as much fraud on the riskiest transactions using the new systems. Besides, it can also detect more than three times the amount of fraudulent cross-border fraud than was previously identified.

Visa has implemented a number of alterations to update its global processing platform, called VisaNet, developing new fraud models that enhance the speed and accuracy with which Visa detects attempted payment card fraud.

The improvements in fraud identification were the result of enhancements to the underlying processing platform, called Advanced Authorisation, on which Visa's security system is based. That system analyses and scores every transaction for fraud potential. The processing platform can handle up to 20,000 transactions per second.

Risk scores are based on a view of fraud and spending patterns across the company's network. Visa said in a statement that it can now detect and prevent fraud in "near real-time", including identifying "high speed fraud", whereby criminals attempt multiple transactions within seconds or minutes.