Bank-to-bank payment network Swift has teamed up with Google Cloud to develop cutting-edge multi-jurisdictional anti-fraud technologies that leverage advanced AI and federated learning to protect global financial institutions.
A Privacy-Preserving Approach to Fraud Detection
In collaboration with Rhino Health and Capgemini, Swift aims to create a privacy-enhancing system that enables financial institutions to combat fraud by securely sharing fraud-related insights without exposing proprietary data.
Key components of this initiative include:
- Federated Learning: AI model training occurs within decentralized financial institutions, preserving sensitive data while transmitting only aggregated learnings back to Swift.
- Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs): These ensure robust data security and confidentiality.
Rachel Levi, head of artificial intelligence at Swift, highlighted the importance of collaboration:
“This exploration will validate whether federated learning can help financial institutions stay one step ahead of bad actors, enabling them to offer an enhanced cross-border payments experience while maintaining data privacy.”
Sandbox and Strategic Rollout
A sandbox with synthetic data will be launched in the first half of 2025, enabling Swift and 12 global financial institutions to prototype the system using historic fraud data. This initiative builds on Swift‘s existing Payment Controls Service (PCS) and a successful pilot across Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East.
Andrea Gallego, managing director of global GTM incubation at Google Cloud, emphasized the transformative potential:
“By enabling secure collaboration and knowledge sharing without compromising data privacy, we are fostering a safer and more resilient financial ecosystem for everyone.”
Strategic Roles
- Rhino Health: Developing and delivering the core federated learning platform.
- Capgemini: Managing system implementation and integration.
Swift‘s trusted position as a global financial network makes it uniquely suited to lead this industry-wide fraud prevention effort, ensuring an improved, secure payments experience for its customers worldwide.