GCash highlights security measures at Asian summit

With trust and security as its number one priority, GCash shares its best learning and practices in the recent Seamless Asia Summit held at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore.

GCash chief risk officer Ingrid Beroña at the Seamless Asia Summit in Singapore

The Seamless Asia Summit gathers over 2,500 professionals from key regional banks, digital wallets, e-commerce retailers, and government agencies.

The country’s leading mobile wallet, together with four other top experts in the Southeast Asian region, led the discussion on protecting payments from digital fraud during the summit. GCash chief risk officer Ingrid Beroña joined representatives from ING Bank, Fintech Alliance PH, Sompo Holdings (Asia) Pte Ltd, and Commonwealth Bank. The summit also marked the first in-person meeting since 2019.

Beroña emphasized that financially inclusive services such as affordable insurance and investment products must come with peace of mind and secure transactions.

“Fraud is not just a problem of one institution but a problem of all. By liaising with our police officers, we learn from their stats which help us identify business vulnerabilities so that our platforms can adapt,” said Beroña.

She highlighted the importance of constant monitoring and continuous learning to make sure financial institutions remain ahead of the curve when it comes to protecting users against cybercriminals.

“Fraudsters are becoming more creative so it’s important to constantly keep an eye on new fraud schemes and modus operandi. We need to always be one step ahead by continuously looking out for possible business vulnerabilities so that we know what tools to use to combat these frauds, and to make sure that the platform is a safe environment,” added Beroña.

Cybersecurity platforms need to be highly adaptable to be able to respond to the ever-changing fraud landscape, emphasized Beroña, while constant cooperation with law enforcement authorities can help improve knowledge of how cybercriminals operate. The information from these collaborative investigations should then be used to conduct consumer education campaigns to protect users and give them a safer digital experience.

GCash has reached 100% roll-out for its world-class security feature, DoubleSafe. The measure uses state-of-the-art face ID technology to ensure that only the owner can access their account on another device. This means even if the users inadvertently give out their MPIN or OTP, their account cannot be accessed from a new device without scanning the owner's face.

GCash is also in close coordination with the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), to intensify efforts in going after scammers and fraudsters.