Partnership enhances customer experiences through more accurate online fraud identification
London, 25 March 2015: PayPoint, an international leader in payment technologies, has partnered with Sphonic to give companies more accurate and targeted fraud risk assessment, thereby improving the overall customer experience. In the latest version of its market leading e-commerce risk management platform, FraudGuard 5.0 integrates Sphonic’s extensive datasets to give merchants more information with which to make far more accurate and fair payment acceptance decisions.
FraudGuard is an advanced point-and-click suite of risk management tools for tackling potential mobile and online card fraud by making smart, real-time decisions based on consumer data. Sphonic is an innovator in big data and applies third party vendor data to fraud, risk and Know Your Customer (KYC) functions. It aggregates large volumes of real-time data in risk processing, so end users can more efficiently discern genuine customers from fraudsters.
FraudGuard 5.0 gives businesses an enhanced ability to intelligently analyse a wider range of consumer information, seasonal trends and broader market data to make faster, targeted and intelligent decisions around unusual activity and assess genuine transactional risk. This ‘smart’ platform learns typical merchant and market behaviour as they evolve, and provides a better customer experience by drastically reducing the number of legitimate purchases which get declined.
“Providing the best experience for the end-customer is at the heart of everything we do,” comments Dan Salmons, Managing Director, PayPoint Mobile and Online. “When it comes to card transactions, businesses need to find a balance between making sure they are spotting fraudulent activity and not alienating customers by declining legitimate card payments – which is often a fine line. With FraudGuard 5.0, merchants can decide whether to accept or decline a payment with far greater precision, drawing on real-time data. Our innovations mean the chance of a consumer’s legitimate transaction being declined is significantly reduced, while merchants can have greater confidence that the transactions they accept won’t subsequently be challenged.”
FraudGuard 5.0 makes smart decisions by understanding a customer’s general shopping behaviour. It continually adapts these insights in line with market and merchant changes, thus isolating truly suspicious activity from both micro and macro trends. This is backed by detailed visual reports charting consumer behaviours against market averages and only highlighting specific anomalies where transactions truly need to be checked.
“Customers want to make sure that the payments they make online are safe and secure, but without the annoyance of having legitimate card transactions declined,” comments Riten Gohil, CEO of Sphonic. “We’ve helped PayPoint enhance FraudGuard 5.0 by providing the real-time analysis necessary for companies to better manage risk through more accurate insights into consumer behaviour. Our instant calculations expose anything from seasonal behavioural trends through to marketing promotions on high-end products, so fraud teams get a more realistic insight into whether or not a purchase is fraudulent. This means genuine customers won’t have their transactions declined and can instead enjoy the best online shopping experience possible.”
Fraudguard 5.0 is released this Spring and will be made available immediately to all existing clients using the product. PayPoint’s partnership with Sphonic will develop in coming months by enabling richer customer insight and enhanced decision making through the addition of external data sources.
ENDS
Contact
PayPoint Press Office
Robin Grainger, Brands2Life
+44 (0)20 7592 1200 / +44 (0)7940 422 931
[email protected]
Peter Brooker
Head of Corporate Affairs, PayPoint
+44 (0)1707 600356 / +44 (0)7900 418960
[email protected]
ABOUT PAYPOINT
PayPoint is an international leader in payment technologies which it delivers by taking the complexity of multi-channel payments and translating it into convenient, simple, value-added solutions through a uniquely strong combination of local shops, internet and mobile distribution channels. It handles almost £15 billion from over 800 million transactions annually for more than 6,000 clients and merchants.
PayPoint Mobile and Online (formerly trading as PayPoint.net, PayByPhone and Adaptis) handles over 142 million payments for parking, payments and consumer services. Its core online payments platform is linked to 16 major acquiring banks in the UK, Europe and North America, delivering secure credit and debit card payments for over 5,100 online merchants. Its suite of products ranges from transaction gateway to a bureau service, in addition to value-added services such as FraudGuard, an advanced service that mitigates the risk of fraud in card not present transactions. Its parking solutions in the UK, Canada, USA, France, Switzerland and Australia make it easy for people to pay for parking by mobile and purchase electronic parking permits, while providing parking authorities automatic number plate recognition systems for car parks.
Retail networks
The PayPoint retail network across the UK numbers over 28,200 local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express, One Stop, Asda, Londis and thousands of independents), where it processes energy meter pre-payments, bill payments, benefit payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, BBC TV licences, cash withdrawals and a range of other transactions. In Romania, the retail network numbers over 9,000 terminals in local shops, helping people to make cash bill payments, money transfers, road tax payments and mobile phone top-ups. In the Republic of Ireland, over 500 terminals in shops and credit unions process mobile top-ups and bill payments.
Collect+, a joint venture with Yodel, provides a parcel drop-off and pick-up service at more than 5,800 PayPoint retailers. PayPoint’s ATM network numbers more than 3,900 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, and 9,700 PayPoint terminals enable retailers to accept credit and debit cards.
ABOUT SPHONIC
Sphonic is the trading name of Symphonic Solutions Limited. The company was recently established with backing from private investors to develop and launch Workflow Manager. With the growth in e-commerce, mobile payments and consumer wallets, alongside increasing concerns around customer security, the Sphonic platform has been created with the growing demands for digital security. Workflow Manager enables clients to integrate with its innovative big data vendor network through a single API. Sphonic also provides professional services and research and development consulting for financial services, eCommerce and mCommerce clients globally.