PAPILLION, Neb.—SAC FCU contends that in the fight against fraudsters, a credit union simply can’t do it alone.
The $759-million CU partners with Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv’s Risk Office. In doing so, the credit union prevented more than $200,000 in fraud last year.
Fiserv’s Risk Office is a team of analysts who support FIs nationally, partnering with banks and credit unions to devise customized fraud strategies and detection rules based on member behavior, geographic data and more. The team also serves as a central data pool, talking to FIs about the fraudulent activity they are seeing and combining that knowledge with what the risk analysts are seeing as well.
“Last year we had only $70,000 in fraud losses,” said Peggy Woltman, SAC VP of virtual banking and contact center. “You can’t stop everything. But we prevented more than $215,000 in losses.”
Right Move, Right Time
Woltman said the move to the Risk Office came at the right time, just before the rash of breaches hit the U.S. last year.
“We were fortunate,” Woltman said, noting that fear of an impending large number of breaches was not the reason the credit union signed on with the Risk Office in September 2013. “At that point our account manager at Fiserv, after observing our fraud situation at the credit union, believed we could benefit from working with the Risk Office.
Outside of the fraud scoring and analytics solutions, what makes the Risk Office effective, said Dan Patterson, SAC VP of finance, is Fiserv dedicating one person from the Risk Office to support the credit union. He said the “human element,” perhaps, has the greatest impact.
“Fiserv dedicates a single analyst to us,” said Patterson. “He reaches out to us regularly each month to discuss what is happening at the credit union—what he is seeing and what we are seeing. And, he will reach out any time he spots fraud issues arising around the country.”
That is a big benefit, said Patterson, giving SAC much greater knowledge of the fraud issues that could be headed the credit union’s way. “So we see more than just the fraud that is coming across our platform. We get nationwide, and even worldwide, perspectives.”
The CU too, reaches out to the Risk Office when it spots an issue. “And the Risk Office goes through all of our transactions to see if there are any fraud tendencies or patterns. It’s a lot of legwork, and I am not sure we would have the time, and the staff, to take on all of that.”
Rules Dictate Real Time
When a transaction reaches a certain fraud score, Woltman explained that the Risk Office immediately reaches out to the member.
SAC employs real-time fraud scoring, but only when a transaction falls within rules that deem the transaction suspicious, such as a card-not-present purchase, certain merchant codes or geographic locations.
“Then, we score it,” said Woltman.
In addition to the fraud prevention savings, Woltman said the Risk Office raises member confidence in the credit union. “The Risk Office reaches out quickly when fraud may be occurring, something members tell us they appreciate. They say they are grateful that the credit unions is watching over their accounts.”