When asked why he robbed banks, notorious 1930s-era bank robber Willie Sutton famously replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” While his response was purposely tongue-in-cheek, stopping criminals is a reality community banks face daily.
For as long as banks have been in existence, fraudsters have been targeting them. Today, a complicated mix of attacks that range from old-school check washing to AI-based deepfake scams and everything in between plague our defenses. It’s not just whack-a-mole defense; it’s manning multiple fronts. Community banks must address analog fraud while defending against new digital threats—a tall order no matter how you look at it.
Fortunately, community banks are in a state of constant vigilance, so fraud mitigation has become second nature. From historical safeguards like Positive Pay to new solutions like advanced anomaly detection, community banks execute fraud mitigation strategies using all the tools in their toolboxes.
From reactive to proactive
These resources now include solutions that help community banks move from a reactive to a proactive stance in addressing fraud. For instance, ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator alum Socratix AI enables community banks to build secure, enterprise-grade AI agents that help fraud and risk teams investigate alerts in real-time and deliver structured insights. Meanwhile, Sardine, another ThinkTECH Accelerator participant, monitors thousands of signals to predict the likelihood of a scam in progress, resulting in more robust fraud detection protocols.
Another ThinkTECH Accelerator graduate, Overwatch Data, offers dark web monitoring to alert community banks to compromised card and check numbers, helping to prevent fraud campaigns, data breaches and cyberattacks before they affect customers or staff. And because so much of what takes place today is on cell phones, we can use tools that identify behavior that seems out of sync with normal activities.
ICBA support
I share these solutions with you not to push certain products but to raise awareness of the growing number of resources available to your bank. As fast as the fraud landscape is evolving, so, too, are the solutions that will help stop it in its tracks.
ICBA Innovation is here to support your fraud mitigation efforts. In every cycle, the ThinkTECH Accelerator selection and advisory committee seeks out the latest technologies that support fraud prevention and mitigation, because fraud is a constant consideration for all bankers.
We encourage you to engage with us as we launch our next cohort on May 18. Join other bankers in attending the Accelerator and hear from the companies that will be part of the next generation of fraud solutions. While we can’t eliminate fraud completely, we can minimize its impact. And with new technologies at our disposal, we’re poised to be stronger than ever.