Cyber risk solution of the year: GBG

Asia Risk Technology Awards 2020

With more than 30 years of global industry experience, specialising in fraud and compliance, GBG is one of the top-ranked fraud and compliance vendors globally, according to a 2020 Chartis RiskTech survey. Bringing global and local knowledge for regional regulatory needs, GBG specialises in fraud management solutions for financial institutions across the region. Today’s Asia Risk award for cyber risk solution of the year is in recognition of GBG’s fraud and cyber risk management system, and its proven implementation and success. 

GBG’s fraud management platform has been innovated to identify and seamlessly assimilate most of the critical layers of cyber data into one solution. Fraud monitoring systems have been around in the market for some time, but traditionally cyber security and fraud teams work separately, with little or no collaboration.

Tony Diep, regional director for South-east Asia at GBG, explains: “We are unifying all the data to mitigate cyber fraud and threats. What I find unique about our solution is that we’re breaking down the traditional silos and consolidating it all into a single platform to enable data intelligence and risk indicators to be shared across different channels and business units for a holistic approach to combat cyber fraud.” This type of fraud management platform allows for the seamless assimilation of most of the critical layers of cyber data.

GBG and AmBank have been working together over the past two years, since AmBank embarked on its digital transformation journey. Yeoh Eng Leong, senior vice-president of retail banking fraud management at AmBank, describes how they “previously had fraud tools that were siloed and so were looking for an enterprise fraud solution with multi-channel fraud monitoring, and found GBG”.

Now, after implementing GBG’s solution, “I believe we are one of the first to have an end-to-end fraud-prevention monitoring system in Malaysia”.

Tony Diep, GBG

At the start of the year, Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara, introduced new governing standards and guidelines for technology risk management and cyber risk management, which financial institutions need to adhere to. This meant they needed to ensure they had an enterprise-wide focus on effective cyber risk management with a framework to support the identification, protection, detection, response and recovery for their systems and data from both internal and external cyber attacks. The guidelines called for an enterprise architecture framework to provide a holistic view of technology used by financial institutions.

AmBank implemented GBG’s fraud and cyber risk management system in accordance with Malaysia’s new regulation, enabling the bank to bridge system silos and share data intelligently across their different channels. It has moved swiftly into the digital space over the past few years. By the end of 2019, 75% of AmBank’s transactions were digital, with 900,000 customers on their digital channels. They needed to find a solution to meet regulatory compliance as well as enable them to grow their digital services. Leong explains how this robust cyber crime risk management system has helped the bank “We have prevented customer losses in fraud of around 2.5 million ringgit over the past six months, with a particular emphasis on detecting fraud on scam and takeover accounts.”

One of the biggest differentiators for GBG is their global and Asia-Pacific installed bases. Their strong footprint across the Apac region provides them with local knowledge of local regulatory needs, specific banking requirements, and 24x7 local support. This on-the-ground support enabled them to complete all three phases of the setup, configuration and testing for AmBank all within three months – meeting AmBank’s quick rollout requirement.

As one Asia Risk Award judge noted: “In the case of GBG, they were very reactive to their client’s needs and worked well with AmBank to deliver to their needs in a timely manner. It is clear they had a strong grasp of what is occurring in the Malaysian environment and designed their solution to work across the organisation, recognise different fraud types and provide effective reporting to assist the client in reducing the risk of fraud.”

GBG plans to continue on this strong momentum. As Diep notes: “Looking forward over the next 12 months, it’s all about helping our customers to accelerate the mitigation of emerging fraud types and working with the banks to future-proof their fraud solution and integrate with the best-of-breed capabilities. We are adding a new module, the GBG Intelligence Centre, which will be announced shortly and includes a number of capabilities, such as machine learning, mobile number validation, email validation, location intelligence and more.”

GBG plans for continuous transformation, ensuring it keeps abreast of, and future-proofs for, growing financial risk management needs, both across the Apac region and globally. Keeping their strong client focus and intricate knowledge of local regulatory requirements will enable GBG to continue as a market leader in fraud and cyber risk management solutions.

In a market that is continuing to mature, GBG’s refined, integrated products will continue to be compelling solutions for the financial institutions they serve.