FrauDfense, a company owned by Spanish banking groups Banco Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank, has launched its first operational service in the country, it has announced.

The software, FrauDfense Check, was described by the company as an advanced, high-performance technology platform designed to prevent fraud before it occurs through the secure exchange of information between financial institutions.

FrauDfense is now opening participation in the programme to the entire Spanish financial sector in what it called a “milestone in the collective fight against financial crime”.

The addition of new participants will expand the reach and efficacy of the model, strengthen customer protection and reinforce a robust and coordinated response to financial crime, it added.

The launch of the platform comes after a year of testing in relevant use-cases including customer onboarding, product contracting, credit transfers, instant payments, Bizum payments and card transactions. FrauDfense said the pilot demonstrated it had the potential to prevent fraud worth millions of euros.

The bank added that the collaborative model provides support in anticipating and facilitating compliance with upcoming regulatory requirements under the EU’s updated payment services regulation, which received provisional agreement in November.

The legislation is meant to update the existing payment services directive to create a “modern framework” for payments. This will include a requirement for payment service providers, such as banks, to share fraud-related information amongst themselves, making them liable if their obligations go unfulfilled.

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