Singapore banks look to behavioral biometrics as fraud attempts rise

A new BioCatch survey of 100 fraud management, anti-money laundering, and compliance leaders at banks in Singapore finds that 91 percent of respondents say fraud attempts at their institutions are increasing, while 75 percent report rising fraud-related losses. The reported increase in losses exceeds both the Southeast Asia average of 67 percent and the global average of 60 percent.

The findings have put Singapore in the spotlight for banking fraud. The country has one of Asia’s most advanced digital financial ecosystems, with high levels of mobile banking adoption, mature real-time payments infrastructure, and widespread use of digital banking services.

“Singapore is one of just three of the 12 countries we surveyed where a majority of respondents rank concern over the financial risk of fraud and scams as greater than their concern about the reputational impact posed by fraud and scams,” says Thomas Peacock, director of Global Fraud Intelligence at BioCatch.

BioCatch says Singapore’s fraud environment is being targeted by organized cybercrime groups and opportunistic fraudsters. The report notes that digital adoption and interconnected banking services make financial services more accessible for customers. But it gives attackers more opportunities to operate at scale.

This makes social engineering and authorized push payment scams difficult for banks to detect. More than half of Singapore respondents identify social engineering as one of the most common local fraud threats, while 42 percent rank APP scams and social engineering as the most critical fraud threats. Account takeover also remains a major concern, becoming one of the top three risks for 54 percent of respondents.

The findings come as regional cybercrime authorities warn that AI is being used to make scams more scalable and convincing. Interpol’s cybercrime chief Neal Jetton told CNA that AI is increasing the “scale, scope, and efficiency” of existing crimes.

For banks, this creates an identity security problem. Traditional fraud controls are designed to detect stolen credentials, suspicious devices, or unauthorized access. But in an APP scam, the customer may be the one initiating the payment. The fraudulent factor may occur outside the banking app, through deception or coercion.

“The industry’s next challenge is building and deploying defenses that can distinguish between a genuine customer acting independently and one being manipulated by a criminal,” says Subhashish Bose, global advisory director at BioCatch. The report says this requires behavioral, device, and network intelligence to understand user intent throughout a digital banking transaction. The response cannot rely solely on a login event or a one-time authentication step.

Behavioral biometrics refers to the habits of a person’s interactions during a digital banking session: keystrokes, mouse movements, touchscreen behavior, device handling, navigation paths, and other signals that can show if the user is behaving normally.

The Singapore survey suggests banks are moving in that direction. Thirty-six percent of respondents say their institution has already implemented behavioral strategies. Among those that have not, 75 percent say their institution is actively considering behavioral biometrics, while another 20 percent plan to explore it in the future.

For years, digital banking controls were built around the login event, involving customer verification, device recognition, credential checks, and step-up authentication. But the BioCatch survey shows why that model is no longer sufficient on its own. Therefore, behavioral biometrics and related risk-intelligence tools are becoming more important. They give institutions a way to look beyond login identity and understand how a customer behaves during the session.

Article Topics

AI fraud  |  banking  |  behavioral biometrics  |  BioCatch  |  biometrics  |  financial services  |  Singapore