By: Robin McFee, Director of Engineering and Mike Foster, VP of Product, Remitly
At Remitly, innovation is fueled by our commitment to providing a fast, reliable, and transparent experience to the billion people who send money across borders each year.
Global fraud is on the rise, with consumers reporting losses of over $10 billion in 2023 according to the FTC. This has been accelerated by the rise of AI and machine learning, which bad actors have used to increase the sophistication and scale of financial fraud attacks. That’s why we have consistently invested in machine learning to identify and combat fraud since 2017.
Remitly’s engineering teams now use machine learning models to evaluate tens of thousands of transactions per hour to detect patterns. This enables us to identify markers of identity theft or credit card fraud rapidly and with high precision – and develop new solutions to prevent them in the future.
In addition to the significant threat financial fraud presents to our customers, we recognize that preventing fraud can also be a source of friction for legitimate customers. When payments companies detect a fraud risk, they will often block the transaction, or put customers through long verification processes that delay the delivery of funds. This is why it’s extremely important to minimize the number of authentic transactions impacted by fraud intervention.
In 2023, our improved machine learning capabilities enabled us to reduce our rate of fraud intervention by over 25% compared to the previous year, while also lowering our rate of transaction loss by over 30%. The result? Millions of Remitly customers were able to send their money home without disruption, while maintaining our robust security and compliance standards.
This is the second in a series of articles we’ll publish exploring how Remitly is using AI and machine learning to benefit our customers. At Remitly, we believe that the potential of AI to fundamentally transform financial technology is immense – as is our responsibility to use this technology responsibly. We’ve embraced a culture of innovation that’s guided by a deep commitment to delivering customer-centric solutions that are worthy of the trust our customers place in us.
We’re excited to share more on the progress we’re making to deliver an exceptionally fast, reliable, and accessible payment experience. Stay tuned to the Remitly Newsroom for future articles or visit our Careers site to join us in shaping the future of payments.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Reach out to news@remitly.com.
