Blue Bell, PA - Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) announced today that it is helping Banorte, one of Mexico’s oldest and largest financial institutions, improve its fraud detection capabilities through an advanced technology solution that monitors transactions in real time and analyzes potentially suspicious patterns more intelligently across product channels throughout the bank.
The Unisys Active Risk Monitoring System (ARMS), which Banorte currently uses with customers at a concept branch where it pilots new technology, has improved the bank’s capability to detect potential fraud through advanced analytics that identify, manage and reduce potential risk by mining transactions for patterns that could be suspicious, and sending immediate alerts to risk managers.
“Unisys helps us improve collaboration among our security monitoring systems. That capability will enable Banorte to better protect our customers by more swiftly detecting and deterring the threat of fraud,” said Carlos Avila, Operations Executive Director of Banorte.
Unisys ARMS actively monitors for fraud through a real time infrastructure -- intelligent IT infrastructure driven directly by business rules and able to allocate computing power dynamically to support strategic business requirements with minimal human intervention. The solution uses a set of rules-based dynamic fraud models that adapt to constantly changing security threats. Unisys developed approximately 45 different fraud models for Banorte that adapt as new thresholds, lists of suspicious entities, or other fraud patterns emerge. For example, one model can prevent a transaction or generate an alert when it sees an online bill payment above a threshold amount from an Internet location in a suspicious foreign country to a payee account with a suspicious address.
The solution’s virtual data warehouse also fully leverages Banorte’s existing infrastructure. Unisys ARMS provides a common architecture for security monitoring to integrate risk prevention units and allow synergies among multiple product channels and functions (e.g., online banking transactions, branch operations, anti-money laundering compliance).
“Unisys ARMS offers visibility across the entire bank -- unlike most traditional bank security monitoring systems, which search for potential attacks in isolated systems that don’t communicate,” said Alejandro Picos, vice president and managing partner of the Latin American financial services practice at Unisys. “Unisys provides a ‘fraud detection ecosystem’ helping banks to identify and respond to suspicious trends more quickly, and better contain and deter fraud attacks. This holistic approach allows Banorte and other financial institutions to realize key benefits of secure business operations through increased operational efficiency and more intelligent risk monitoring.”
With its ability to better protect its customers against fraud, Banorte answers an urgent consumer need, underscored by two recent global surveys that Unisys conducted on identity protection and related security issues. A March 2006 study revealed, among other trends, that Latin Americans are particularly concerned about sharing sensitive data, especially information about family relatives such as mother’s maiden name. A separate Unisys study in September 2005 found that nearly 80 percent of Mexicans worry a lot about the fraudulent use of their bank accounts or credit cards.
Unisys partners with Actimize, a leading provider of real-time analytics technology, in its ARMS solution, which also helps banks with anti-money laundering protection and compliance. The system can detect and track collusion among a group of individuals, relate multiple events into potential criminal scenarios, and conduct comprehensive situational analysis in real time.
"Combining Unisys deep expertise in financial services and security solutions with Actimize's breakthrough real-time technology gives banks like Banorte a powerful weapon against increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals,” said David Sosna, chief executive officer of Actimize.
Unisys will exhibit its ARMS solution at the15th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2006) in Austin, Texas, May 1-5, 2006. In addition, Unisys will present policy proposals to WCIT delegates on the need for standards around procedures and practices in global identity authentication. Unisys also will exhibit the latest technology in biometrics (e.g., iris and finger print scanners), radio frequency identification (RFID) applications in defense and commercial supply chain logistics, and other security applications.
