The following is an excerpt from today’s Global Newsletter.
In a tale almost as old as time, the rise of a hero to vanquish rising evil has come to fintech’s fight with fraud. An announcement from Plaid, launching their collaborative fraud fighting network, Beacon, which is designed to “stop the chain reaction of fraud.”
Until now, fraud-fighting has been the plight of stand-alone entities. Lone vigilantes in their efforts to stop attacks and protect their customers.
Plaid Beacon pulls on the strength of the many by opening itself out to contributions from fintechs and financial institutions, reporting instances of fraud that can help to identify bad actors at the moment of account creation despite changes in data.
In a chicken-and-egg situation, this network approach is only effective within an already established ecosystem. Only a company of Plaid’s size and clout would be able to pull off such a feat.
Spoken in true superhero fashion, Plaid’s Head of Identity, Alain Meier, has said, “There’s power in numbers, and together we can help stop the chain reaction of identity fraud.” – maybe an en end is finally in sight for the threat.