David Capezza

David Capezza is Vice President for Ecosystem Risk, Europe, responsible for identifying, mitigating, and managing risks to Visa clients in the European region. David was previously Senior Director in Payment Fraud Disruption, leading the Payment Systems Intelligence team, which was responsible for identifying and disrupting fraud activities targeting Visa clients, merchants, and the overall payments ecosystem globally. His team was responsible for creating key Visa capabilities, including Visa Account Attack Intelligence, Vital Signs Cashout Monitoring, Visa Payment Threats Lab, Payment Threat Intelligence, Real-Time Attack Disruption, and eCommerce Threat Disruption, among others. David previously worked in Visa’s Cyber Security, Cyber Threat Intelligence team as a lead Intelligence Analyst.

Prior to Visa, he gained extensive government and intelligence experience, holding positions within the US Department of State, Department of Defense and government consulting engagements. David holds a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian affairs and the Russian language from George Washington University, holds multiple information security certifications, and has authored numerous publications.

Below please find a Q&A with David to give you some insight into what you might expect from him at this year’s Financial Crime 360 event.

Q. What do you consider to be the current top 3 challenges in relations to fighting financial Crime?
In my opinion, three primary challenges are that many fraudsters are innovative, technologically savvy, and persistent. As the industry works to deploy advanced technologies, fraudsters persistently work to circumvent new industry controls, technologies, and create innovative approaches to conducting financial crime.

Fraud is an area which continues to be a concern and a priority for many consumers, clients and merchants. Some fraud trends are worrying – including Authorised Push Payment scams (otherwise known as ‘APP’ scams), where people and business are tricked into sending money using instant account-to-account payments to an account controlled by a fraudster. According to UK Finance 2022 Annual Fraud Report, in the UK, in 2021, £583 million was lost to APP scams (up 39% from 2020), overtaking card fraud losses for the first time. APPs tend to lack many of the fraud prevention capabilities and consumer protections that exist with card payments.

However, it is important to note that despite reports of fraudsters trying to take advantage of the pandemic, recent data suggests that fraud rates on cards continue to fall. According to [mention where this statistic comes from]. incidents of fraud occur in less than 0.1% of transactions on the Visa network, among the lowest of all payment forms. Visa works hard to maintain the security, resilience and integrity of its payments ecosystem.

Q. What is Visa doing to mitigate fraud risks?
Visa works to protect everyone buying, selling or moving money. I think the importance that we place on the security, resilience and reliability of our network has been essential in helping people and businesses thrive. UK and European businesses and consumers benefit from the security, availability and reliability of our global network, which. based on [mention where this statistic comes from]. has successfully processed more than 99.999% of the transactions it has received over the last five years. We invest heavily and continuously in network security. Over the past five years alone, we have spent nearly $9 billion on reducing fraud and enhancing network security. In addition to our secure data centres, we operate a series of integrated cyber and risk command and intelligence hubs globally that handle 24/7 security monitoring, incident response and investigations, and threat intelligence. We employ 800 cybersecurity specialists globally, with 110 in Europe, and multiple world-class cybersecurity centres, including one in Europe, that detect and prevent millions of attempted cyber-attacks every day. In 2021 alone, based on [mention where this statistic comes from], our fraud prevention capabilities helped stop over £19 billion in attempted fraudulent transactions for merchants and financial institutions.

The way that Visa seeks to protect people from fraud uses a three-pronged strategy:

(People): Expert resources with a cross-disciplinary approach around forensic investigations, cyber security, fraud, and analytics that are deployed globally, with our Risk Operations Center (ROC) monitoring Visa transactions for potential anomalies in real-time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
(Processes) Refined operational processes that allow us to respond to emerging fraud attacks in any geography in a matter of minutes, instead of hours or days, to minimize potential fraud losses for our customers
(Technology) Advanced fraud detection and mitigation capabilities that are powered by our investments in leading-edge AI/ML technology and can translate the breadth of Visa data into actionable insights on behalf of our customers globally – identifying the proverbial fraud needle in the haystack of legitimate payment transactions

Q. What is the value of industry/ network-level collaboration and innovation?
Information sharing is a critical pillar to Visa’s strategy of securing the payments ecosystem. All participants in the payments ecosystem are key to securing against financial crime and ecosystem risks. Visa has and continues to actively operate in UK, European, and global information sharing consortiums, while also providing timely public and client-facing guidance on improving the security, integrity and resilience of the overall ecosystem. A recent example of this is the publication of the Visa Bi-Annual Threats Report, providing all payment participants and consumers with the latest ecosystem risks and bet practices for mitigating these threats.

Overall, Visa recognizes the importance of ensuring that every participant in the global payments ecosystem is as secure and resilient as possible. One key component of accomplishing this and maintaining the security of the overall ecosystem is timely, information sharing and collaboration with all ecosystem participants.