Eftpos. It is Australia’s sovereign domestic debit payments scheme, and it is using the power of AI to make digital payments safer.

eftpos CEO, Stephen Benton, said "the shift to AI-driven predictive fraud scoring is a crucial milestone in the evolution of Australia’s digital payments ecosystem and brings to life features designed to keep Australians safe in the Digital Economy."

eftpos says its "new sovereign online capability, which includes dedicated Australian counter-fraud measures, follows the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision in October that Australian banks are expected to offer and promote Least Cost Routing (LCR) in online by the end of 2022."

Benton added: “This built-for-purpose fraud detection engine uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to bolster security for eCommerce and is part of a $100m eftpos funded digital upgrade to deliver the next generation of secure payments technology.

“The anti-fraud capability has widespread support from banks and FinTechs across the country and will scale quickly in the Australian market next year to provide real benefits for merchants and consumers as eftpos online market penetration grows.

“eftpos’ extension further into online payments will quickly drive much needed large-scale competition and place downward pressure on transaction costs. Currently we are well known as the lowest cost debit payments provider for retailers and small businesses at physical shops, and we want to develop the same reputation in the online environment.

Benton continued: "eftpos’ security kit bag now includes the new security engine, two factor authentication (3DS), tokenisation, enhanced Disputes and Chargebacks capability and a digital identity solution, connectID."

Before today’s announcement, eftpos reminds us its service "was already available in online for some Card On File payments where banks have implemented the service for their merchant customers, and Deposits and Withdrawal payments via the Beem It mobile wallet. Since launching the eftpos digital service that enables LCR last year, it has been subject to zero fraud."

So, what is more background, and what is added details on Featurespace?

eftpos explains its new online counter-fraud capability "comes as part of a partnership with global leader in financial crime prevention, counter-fraud scoring and integrity intelligence Featurespace, based in Cambridge England, which was co-founded by Australian National University engineering and information technology alumni Dave Excell."

Excell said employing self-learning technology to accurately predict individual behaviour in real time is the only meaningful way to protect people and organisations from the rising threats of fraud and financial crime, adding: "We are honoured that eftpos has put their trust in Featurespace to help provide a safe and secure payments environment for Australia’s increasingly digital economy."

Featurespace bills itself as "the world leader in Enterprise Financial Crime prevention for fraud and money laundering. Featurespace invented Adaptive Behavioral Analytics and Automated Deep Behavioral Networks, both of which are available through the ARIC Risk Hub, a real-time machine learning platform that risk scores events to prevent fraud and financial crime.

"ARIC Risk Hub is relied on to catch new fraud attacks and identify suspicious activity in real-time by more than 70 major global financial institutions. Publicly announced customers include HSBC, TSYS, Worldpay, NatWest Group, Contis, Danske Bank, ClearBank, AK Bank and Permanent TSB."