AI technology sees customer ‘payment fraud’ losses at Bank of Ireland drop 25%

  • Bank of Ireland has achieved a 30% reduction in attempted payment fraud and reduced customer losses by 25% since implementation of new measures in 2024
  • Behaviour pattern recognition’ flags suspicious activity
  • Improvement is recognised globally by Celent’s 2026 Model Risk Manager Award

19 June: Bank of Ireland has transformed its fraud detection in the area of payment fraud, with new AI-led pattern recognition technology, that can help spot suspicious activity before a payment leaves the Bank. Payment fraud happens when fraudsters deceive people into sending money or gain access to accounts to make transactions without the customer’s permission.

Delivered in partnership with Featurespace, a Visa Solution, the technology achieved a 30% reduction in attempted fraud and a 25% reduction in customer losses since 2024. The Featurespace platform uses AI and machine learning to help banks and financial institutions to identify both existing and new forms of fraud.

How it works?

The platform uses AI to understand how accounts are typically used, helping the Bank identify potentially suspicious behaviour earlier, while reducing unnecessary alerts that can delay payments.

Beyond direct financial impact, Bank of Ireland’s new approach has made the process smoother and simpler for customers:

  • Halved case handling time
  • 87.1% drop in false positives – meaning that customers are less likely to be contacted or asked to confirm a payment.
  • 85% reduction in alert volumes – far fewer transactions need to be checked by the Bank. This allows Bank staff to focus more on higher-risk and potentially suspicious payments.
  • 90% of customers confirm genuine transactions without contacting the bank

Nicola Sadlier, Head of Fraud Protection, at Bank of Ireland said: “Protecting our customers against fraud is one of our top priorities – and staying ahead of the fraudsters requires constant innovation. Combining the latest AI-powered technology through the Featurespace platform with our fraud expertise has transformed our payment fraud detection and prevention.

“Along with significantly reducing payment fraud losses, we’ve been able to do so in a way that’s simple, seamless and effective for customers. This collaborative, award-winning work is ultimately delivering the best protection for our customers.”

James Mirfin, SVP, Head of Risk and Security Intelligence at Visa said: “As criminals continue to employ more sophisticated methods and technologies, Visa solutions, such as the Featurespace platform, can enable financial institutions to stay a step ahead of fraudsters and tackle rising fraud rates.

“Our work with Bank of Ireland, and the recognition it has received, clearly proves this, reducing fraud losses and enabling the bank to adapt to new and evolving attack patterns without increasing friction for customers. This combination of adaptability and customer experience is exactly what the industry should be striving for – it shows what’s possible when banks move beyond static controls, to real-time intelligent decisioning.”

The results have received global recognition from Celent’s 2026 Model Risk Manager Award, marking excellent usage of technology by a financial institution, highlighting industry best practice and setting a benchmark for future fraud resilience.

ENDS

*All Bank of Ireland result refer to statistics used in its Celent Model Risk Manager 2026 application.

For informational purposes only. Results based on Bank of Ireland’s internal data; individual outcomes may vary. Planned features subject to change.