Visa Finalizes Featurespace Purchase to Boost Fraud Prevention

Visa said it completed its acquisition of financial crime/payments fraud prevention provider Featurespace.

“Visa will add Featurespace’s capabilities into its range of fraud prevention and risk-scoring offerings,” the payments giant said in a Thursday (Dec. 19) news release. “By combining the two companies’ highly complementary products and tools, customers will have access to enhanced fraud protection services to help keep their businesses safe and secure, including real-time detection of sophisticated fraud attacks, without adding friction to the user experience.”

Featurespace’s business now becomes part of Visa’s Risk and Identity Solutions unit. In the months ahead, its products will be woven into Visa’s offering to expand on its fraud prevention solutions and use cases, according to the release.

Visa first announced plans to acquire Featurespace in September. The companies did not then — or now — reveal a price for the deal, although past media reports put the cost at $925 million.

“We developed our innovations to help crack even the most complex fraud cases,” Featurespace founder Dave Excell said in the Thursday release. “As part of Visa, we will be able to set a new standard in AI-powered fraud prevention and integrate our solutions into a series of products and services that will help make the world a safer place to transact.”

PYMNTS spoke this week with Featurespace Chief Operating Officer Tim Vanderham about trust between companies, banks and merchants.

“When we think of this interconnected, interwoven circle of trust,” as transactions move domestically or globally, “the consumer has to be put at the center,” he said.

The interview was part of the “What’s Next in Payments” series on trust and payments — and how trust can forge connections between financial service firms and their customers.

PYMNTS identified four key threats to that trust: credit risk; payments risk; counterparty risk; and fraud/security risk. Aside from the consumer, the other stakeholders in a transaction include the financial institution acting as the counterparty (for example, in account-to-account transactions) and the merchant or business with whom the consumer is buying.

“Putting the consumer at the center means ensuring that you understand what the fraud vectors might be at each one of those touch points,” Vanderham said. “And it means looking to minimize the risk while optimizing the consumer experience,” with a frictionless flow of funds in online and offline transactions.