In keeping with the crisis-induced increase of activity in digital finance, GCash, the leading mobile wallet in the Philippines, adopted new and enhanced security and risk technologies by Alipay, the world’s leading open digital lifestyle platform.
Alipay recently upgraded its AI-powered risk engine, AlphaRisk to enhance its world-leading real-time risk detection and management capabilities.
“Security has always been at the core by which GCash operates, and as we transition to the new normal, we must provide a safer and more reliable user experience for GCash users. Through Alipay’s risk engine and technology, we are further bolstering our risk and security capabilities that will ultimately benefit our end-users,” GCash Chief Technology and Operations Officer Pebbles Sy said.
The acceleration of digital finance across the globe poses an overall concern over user security. With the integration of fintech into the new normal amid COVID-19, a new breed of fraud risks also arise due to potential cyber-attacks and identity theft, among others. This means that banks and fintech platforms have to prioritize fraud prevention and reduce vulnerability to crime in their digital strategies.
GCash responded to this by levelling up its security through Alipay’s risk engine and technology. The engine maintains a fraud loss rate of less than a 0.64 in 10 million. This means that out of P10 million pesos, only less than 0.64 centavos can potentially be lost due to fraud, which is significantly lower than industry average.
With over 200 algorithms for risk profile adjustment thanks to the engine’s AutoPilot feature, GCash can employ the best risk management strategy as well as topnotch user experience.
This means that GCash is almost invulnerable to losses due to fraud thanks to the enhanced technology. Since it detects all potential risks which threaten its customers’ money, it also leads to a worry-free user experience since subscribers can transact as much as they want without having to think about losing their money to fraud.
AlphaRisk does this by quickly responding to risks detected by adjusting risk profiles within a short period of time. Not only did it help protect the 1.2 billion user accounts on Alipay and its wallet partners’ platforms, last year, over 10,000 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and merchants have upgraded security as well, and over RMB30 billion in funds have been protected from promotion abuse, which can damage a brand’s ability to retain and acquire customers.
In the local context, it also led to the launch of GCash Customer Protect last September, a program that ensures money-back guarantee for unauthorized transactions.
“At the beginning of our growth journey, we were facing challenges in adoption due to consumers’ lack of trust and security concerns. We have significantly decreased promotion abuse to less than 1 percent, and improved our security capability,” said Peach Lucienne Orbe, Head of Risk Decision Center at GCash.
At present, GCash has over 20 million registered users who use the app for payment, remittance and financial services, as well as over 75,000 QR merchant partners.
Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), which operates GCash, is part of the portfolio companies of 917Ventures, the largest corporate incubator in the Philippines wholly-owned by Globe Telecom Inc.
GCash is available for download on the App Store and Google Play. For more information, kindly visit https://www.gcash.com/.
