Account takeover attacks rise 24% annually

Account takeover (ATO) attacks are on the rise in the US, according to Sift, an AI-powered fraud platform which has released its Q3 2024 Digital Trust Index. The ATO attack rate saw a 24% increase across the Sift Global Network in Q2 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Additionally, 24% of consumers surveyed by Sift have been a victim of ATO in the past year, up from 18% in 2023.

This surge is part of a continuing trend, as ATO attacks have been steadily climbing in recent years (Sift data showed a 354% year-over-year increase in Q2 2023). Data breaches, which are often the precursor to ATOs, are also making headlines in 2024, thanks to high-profile incidents, including National Public Data’s massive data breach of 2.9 billion records, the Ticketmaster hack, and Change Healthcare’s patient data theft at the hands of a ransomware gang. These incidents all underscore the widespread consequences of this growing threat.

“With large scale data breaches exposing billions of user records in 2024 alone, account takeover attacks have scaled to become one of the most common and damaging types of fraud online,” said Brittany Allen, Senior Trust and Safety Architect at Sift. “These attacks are almost always ‘stepping stones’ for cybercriminals who are after stored payment credentials, loyalty points, or other stored value.”

 

Private sector partners join Project Agorá

More than 40 private sector financial firms, convened by the Institute of International Finance, will join the Bank for International Settlements and a group of leading central banks in Project Agorá to explore how tokenisation can enhance wholesale cross-border payments. 

The BIS and the IIF selected a diverse set of firms from applicants that met the eligibility requirements and other criteria laid out in the public call for participation. Participating firms must be regulated in a participating jurisdiction as a commercial bank, payment services provider, or financial market infrastructure company, be significantly involved in cross-border payments, and have innovation expertise. These firms represent a diversity of private sector partners in terms of business models, institution size, expertise and geography.  

Participating private sector institutions include commercial banks, clearing companies, FX firms, and card companies, including Visa and Mastercard. Advisory services are being provided to the IIF in connection with this project by EY for PMO support and White & Case LLP for contracting.

The project will now begin the design phase of the project. Project Agorá (Greek for ‘marketplace’) is structured as a public-private collaboration. It brings together seven central banks: Bank of France (representing the Eurosystem), Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, Bank of Mexico, Swiss National Bank, Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They will work in partnership with the selected financial firms, and the IIF will act as the private sector convener.

 

Tech innovation and regulatory actions prompt buy-side compliance overhaul

An explosion of data, communication channels and a series of costly regulatory actions are driving a compliance overhaul by asset management firms, hedge funds and other investment organisations around the world, according to a report from Coalition Greenwich.

In February of this year, the SEC levied more than $81m in fines against 16 prominent investment advisors for failing to properly maintain electronic communications records. Meanwhile, in May, more regulatory infractions surfaced. Several of Wall Street’s well-known private equity firms announced they were negotiating a settlement with the SEC over employees’ use of banned communication channels.

With regulatory enforcement heating up, Coalition Greenwich, in collaboration with Bloomberg L.P., launched a study to understand the compliance challenges facing the investment industry, and how buy-side firms were working with new technologies and strategies to minimise emerging compliance risks.

The results, which were based on interviews with buy-side business management, risk, compliance, legal, and technology professionals in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, clearly demonstrate that increased regulatory scrutiny is pushing improvement in organisational risk controls - a response similar to that seen among sell-side firms in 2022 following $2 billion in SEC fines for social media and text record-keeping lapses and the use of unauthorised communications channels.

“With the likelihood of further SEC actions down the pipeline, buy-side firms are elevating compliance to a top priority and increasing technology investment accordingly,” said Audrey Costabile, Senior Analyst for Coalition Greenwich Market Structure & Technology and author of ‘Global Buy-Side Compliance and Surveillance: Innovation as the Competitive Differentiator’. “Firms recognise the potential risks of failures, as well as the benefits of good compliance to investors, firm brand and fundraising efforts as the competitive environment gets tougher and margins further compress.”

Approximately 60% of buy-side firms expect compliance budgets to increase in the next 12 months, including nearly 1 in every 10 expecting growth in spending of more than 25%. Much of that investment in the future will be used on systems to normalise and integrate existing data and systems.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will also be a top priority. While there is still some basic blocking and tackling to do, the utilisation of AI/natural language processing (NLP) policies to enhance performance and reduce false positives sits prominently on the roadmap for the buy side.

“Firms are realising the need to aggregate, normalise and contextualise information within a single workflow,” added Costabile. “The ultimate goal for the buy side is the integration of all comms, voice and trade events, including both structured and unstructured data, into a single, seamless surveillance and reconstruction process.”

 

European retail investors turn bearish amid post-Olympics calm and economic uncertainty

Spectrum Markets, a pan-European trading venue designed for retail investors, has published its SERIX sentiment data for European retail investors for August, revealing a bearish sentiment towards the CAC 40 French stock exchange, which dropped from a neutral 100 in July to a bearish 93 in August.

August witnessed significant market-sensitive events that triggered spikes in volatility. As a result, 38.7% of trading on Spectrum took place outside of traditional European market hours during this period, its highest level of out of hour trading on Spectrum since November 2022.

“Our bearish investor sentiment index indicates a degree of pessimism among retail investors, as the attention switched back to politics,” said Michael Hall, Head of Distribution at Spectrum Markets. “After the heightened political uncertainty caused by President Macron’s call for a snap election in June, the upcoming Olympics worked as a distraction to investors’ concerns. Political deadlocks, however, did not vanish. This, combined with headwinds in French corporate earnings, especially in the luxury goods sector, has added to market concerns. Global demand, especially from China, has been weaker than expected, leading to underperformance from major companies like LVMH and L’Oréal.”

 

Ant International scores role as Spurs’ global payment solutions and digital wallet partner

Tottenham Hotspur has announced a new three-year strategic partnership with Ant International. The partnership sees Ant International, together with its business brands Alipay+, Antom and WorldFirst, become the exclusive official global payment solutions and digital wallet partner of Tottenham Hotspur.

The Premier League club will be working with Ant International, through its digital technology solutions brand Alipay+ and merchant payment services brand Antom, to provide a seamless payment experience for fans in the stadium and on e-commerce platforms, using payment methods widely used in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Ant International will also support the club on activations to drive the growth of and engagement with its fanbase in the APAC region via its partner digital payment apps, including Alipay. 

 

B2BE launches invoice distribution solution

B2BE has launched a solution designed to provide effective invoice tracking and management for businesses. The Managed Customer Invoice Distribution solution proactively ensures that the invoices are received by the customers so that it can be processed and delivered on time. 

B2BE has multiple format options depending on customer preference. These include email, EDI, e-invoicing, facsimile, or print and post. B2BE says that the solution ensures compliance with e-invoicing regulations.

“With our managed service, businesses can expect to gain greater control over their invoicing process,” said Joe Chng, Executive Chairman & CEO at B2BE. “This is achieved with proactive notifications when the customer has not viewed or received the invoices. The result is that customers are able to improve their customer payment cycle.”