Real-time payments demand real-time protection: Here’s how to close the gap
As fraud grows more complex across Asean, Mastercard is helping companies strengthen cyber resilience through its AI-driven systems and cross-sector collaboration
REGIONAL growth today is digital by default. As Singapore retailers look to expand across the region, the same tools that enable e-commerce and faster cross-border payments also open the door to more complex threats.
For every transaction made online, there is a chance that fraudsters could exploit a weak point in the system. In today’s regional business environment where money and data flow freely, scams and breaches can spread as fast as sales.
This challenge is no longer limited to one company, sector or market. It now affects consumers, businesses and regulators across South-east Asia, which is why collaboration between retailers, financial institutions and technology providers is critical.
Matthew Driver, executive vice-president of services for Asia Pacific at Mastercard, says: “Across Asean, the payments ecosystem is under growing pressure from increasingly sophisticated scams and cyber fraud.”
Mastercard’s Global Cybersecurity Research 2025 found that 80 per cent of consumers worldwide have experienced a scam attempt in 2024, underscoring how pervasive digital crime has become.
In Singapore alone, 88 per cent of respondents experienced a scam attempt in 2024, and nine in 10 said they were worried about cyber attacks using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as voice cloning and phishing.
For businesses operating in multiple Asean markets, the complexity multiplies. Each transaction or data exchange can potentially create an entry point for fraud, and a single breach in one market can ripple across operations and damage customer trust across all markets.
Left unaddressed, these incidents can lead to financial losses, service disruptions and long-term reputational harm, setbacks few businesses can afford.
“Fraud does not respect borders, and neither can our defences. Today’s scams can wipe out an account in seconds. This makes predictive protection and real-time collaboration essential for businesses operating across multiple markets,” says Driver.
From hindsight to foresight
To help institutions stay ahead of fast-moving threats, Mastercard is building tools that allow them to detect attacks earlier and respond faster.
“The shift in fraud defence today is from hindsight to foresight. Our role is to equip institutions with intelligence to anticipate threats, not just react to them,” says Driver.
The company’s AI-driven systems analyse transactions in milliseconds, flagging suspicious activity before it results in losses.
Its Decision Intelligence Pro technology evaluates billions of data points to distinguish legitimate behaviour from abnormal patterns. This allows issuers to catch fraud in real-time without slowing down the customer experience.
The results speak for themselves. Mastercard’s Safety Net system alone prevented US$20 billion (S$26 billion) in fraud losses globally in 2023 by spotting threats early.
With digital activity accelerating, Mastercard continues to invest in even stronger defences. Its systems now monitor 19 million entities every 10 days, helping partners identify risks more effectively before they cause damage.
“The attack surface for cyber criminals is expanding at an unprecedented rate. Over 2,200 cyber attacks happen every day, one every 39 seconds,” says Driver.
“At Mastercard, we’re using advanced AI to analyse billions of transactions in milliseconds, flagging abnormal behaviour and stopping scams before money leaves a customer’s account.”
In addition to leveraging advanced AI to monitor billions of transactions in real time, Mastercard’s cyber security strategy is further enhanced by Mastercard Threat Intelligence (MTI), which is powered by Recorded Future.
This integration enables MTI to deliver timely, actionable insights into emerging cyber risks, drawing on global data and sophisticated analytics.
By anticipating threats before they materialise, Mastercard empowers organisations to respond swiftly and decisively, reducing the risk of financial loss and reputational harm.
Supporting businesses at every stage of growth
Cyber resilience is not just a concern for large organisations. Small and medium-sized businesses are often the most exposed, and the least equipped to respond.
To support them, Mastercard offers free resources through its Trust Centre and Digital Doors programme. These help small business owners strengthen basic defences and better understand their risks.
On the payments side, tools such as Ethoca Consumer Clarity and the First-Party Trust Programme improve transparency at the point of purchase.
By giving customers clearer transaction details upfront, they help prevent “friendly fraud” that occurs when a legitimate charge is mistakenly disputed, reducing chargebacks that drain time and revenue.
For Mastercard, protecting the digital economy goes beyond helping individual firms. It requires regional coordination and shared defences. That is why it works with banks, fintechs and regulators to share threat intelligence and develop joint strategies.
By working together across industries, Mastercard ensures that threat intelligence and best practices are shared, enabling businesses of all sizes to benefit from collective expertise and coordinated responses.
“Digitalisation connects us, and securing the digital world can’t be done alone by any one organisation. Cross-sector collaboration, including public-private partnerships, is therefore key to achieving this,” says Driver.
One example is Mastercard’s Trace initiative in the Philippines, which links 36 banks to detect money-mule accounts and provide proactive alerts to financial institutions. The solution gives banks a network-level view of suspicious patterns within the domestic real-time payments system.
Other partnerships include a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Indonesia with Indosat, a memorandum of understanding with the Monetary Authority of Singapore for threat-intelligence sharing, and joint work with the United Nations Development Programme to tackle scams on a global scale.
Strengthening Singapore’s hub role
Singapore’s position as an open, well-regulated and digitally connected hub makes it a natural focal point for many of these initiatives. It is also where regional security ideas are tested and scaled.
Mastercard’s collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore includes joint analysis of threats and readiness exercises for the financial sector.
Meanwhile, its partnership with Nanyang Technological University is helping to train mid-career professionals in cyber security and digital trust, filling a key talent gap across the region.
Driver says: “Securing the digital world requires collective action. Mastercard’s commitment to cross-sector collaboration ensures that businesses, governments and technology partners work together to build a safer, more resilient digital economy for all.
“It’s not about securing a device or a network anymore. It’s about securing the entire ecosystem, for today and tomorrow.”
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