On June 8th, FiVerity hosted an interview and panel discussion with Michael Timoney, Vice President of Secure Payments, and Staci Shatsoff, Assistant Vice President Secure Payments on the Federal Reserve’s newly released definition of synthetic identity fraud (SIF). This second session in the Cyber Fraud Intelligence Webinar Series featured Mark Sievewright, previously vice chairman and the former division president of Credit Union Solutions at Fiserv, as the moderator and FiVerity CEO Greg Woolf as a panelist as well.
SIF costs financial institutions billions and continues to grow by 25% each year, making this discussion particularly relevant for anti-fraud professionals.
Timoney and Shatsoff outlined the new industry definition of synthetic identity fraud and how the Fed’s focus group of 12 industry experts arrived at it. As they explained, having a definition for SIF allows fraud and security experts to identify cases of it, measure the impact, and mitigate the problem. According to the FBI, this form of fraud is the “fastest-growing financial crime in the United States”.
The focus group ultimately came to this industry-recommended definition:
Synthetic identity fraud (SIF) is the use of a combination of personally identifiable information (PII) to fabricate a person or entity in order to commit a dishonest act for personal or financial gain.
FiVerity is grateful for our strong relationship with the Federal Reserve and for their ongoing support to combat SIF. Partnerships like this represent an important step in the battle against hackers and fraudsters. Collaborations between government, law enforcement, vendors, and others is the best way to defeat cyber fraud.
To request a recording, click here.