After an incredibly challenging year filled with economic and social turbulence, I am pleased to report that Advanced Fraud Solutions was able to successfully adapt – and grow – during 2020. Like many of you, we had to quickly adjust and create new ways to continue serving our customers in their fight against fraud. I attribute a large part of our success to the determination of our employees who forged ahead despite the challenges we faced both at home and at work. And, because of those efforts, AFS was able to add 80 new financial institutions to our customer roster in 2020.
As they always do, fraud operators tried to take advantage of the disruption across the economy by increasing the frequency of their attacks. And, unfortunately, due to the economic downturn, there were many instances of desperate individuals turning to check and card fraud as a way to make a quick buck. 2020 was exceptional. We witnessed a confluence of both amateur attempts and highly-skilled, well-organized fraud rings attacking financial institutions and their customers simultaneously. This was often executed in a coordinated fashion. AFS successfully identified and stopped over 2.5 million bad checks (totaling $2.2 billion in value) at the point of presentment. In doing so, we saved our financial institution partners and consumers the time and expense that accompanies these fraud attempts.
AFS Partnerships in 2020
There were many important lessons that we learned from 2020. For one, check, card and ACH fraud still remain a highly coveted target for fraud operators. To further our reach and continue improving the efficacy of our products, in the last year AFS expanded our partnership program with FIS, DaLand Kiosk Banking, COCC, SwitchThink and Corelation, among others. Our goal with these partnerships is to facilitate more seamless integrations with our solutions across various deposit channels and payment types. This was done in an effort to interdict a broader set of fraudulent attacks. I am very proud that AFS is host to the industry’s largest cooperative check fraud prevention database in the U.S.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support. We look forward to our ongoing partnership as we continue to navigate the challenges ahead together. Thank you.
— Lawrence Reaves, President and CEO, Advanced Fraud Solutions
Do you have a fraud prevention story to tell?
Join your peers. Showcase your financial institution’s best practices using AFS’s fraud prevention solutions. AFS is currently developing case studies to demonstrate and highlight your success stories.