FNA’s Money Trails selected winner of Central Banking’s Payment Service Initiative Award 2025
Financial Network Analytics (FNA) is proud to announce that Money Trails has been selected as the winner of Central Banking’s Payment Service Initiative Award. This prestigious accolade recognizes FNA’s groundbreaking collaboration with PayNet Malaysia and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in establishing a National Fraud Portal (NFP) to combat national-scale financial crime.
The Power of Graph Technology in Fraud Prevention
FNA’s Money Trails is a cornerstone of Malaysia’s NFP. It provides a powerful, graph-based application powered by advanced financial network analytics that enables financial institutions to track how fraudulently acquired funds move across the banking system.
Understanding the scam and fraud difference is critical to realizing why this technology is so vital. While traditional fraud involves unauthorized system access, modern scams manipulate victims into willingly authorizing instant payments. By the time a victim realizes they have been scammed, the funds have already bounced across multiple payment systems.
Money Trails counters this by allowing institutions to collaborate in real-time to execute robust payment fraud detection, trace money mule networks, and freeze funds before they can be completely withdrawn. This significantly enhances banks’ collective ability to disrupt fraudsters and recover stolen assets.
Real-World Impact: The Malaysian National Fraud Portal
Bank Negara Malaysia and Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) launched the NFP in April 2024 to address the rising cases of fraud and scams affecting Malaysians. The implementation of FNA's shared digital public infrastructure has yielded transformative results.
As of November 2024, the portal has achieved:
Increased Fund Recovery: The percentage of funds being successfully frozen has surged from 0.5% to 30%.
Accelerated Investigations: The average time required to investigate each reported case has been reduced by 70%, now taking just 30 minutes.
Rapid Resolution: According to the NFP project lead at PayNet, “In the past, tracing funds could take days—assuming all parties cooperated. Most cases are now resolved within four hours.”
This award underscores the significant role played by FNA’s Money Trails and the National Fraud Portal service in delivering an effective, advanced technical solution to combat consumer scams and fraud. By providing a shared utility for banks, law enforcement, financial intelligence units, and other stakeholders, FNA’s fraud solutions enhance detection, prevention, and victim restitution.
A Shared Vision for Secure Digital Economies
“Winning Central Banking’s Payment Service Initiative Award is a valuable acknowledgment for the hard work people at FNA, PayNet, BNM, and the Malaysian Financial Institutions have done over the last few years in building the world’s first real-time, nation-wide funds tracing capability,” said Dr. Kimmo Soramäki, FNA Founder and CEO.
“The results speak for themselves. We have seen a dramatic increase in frozen fraudulent funds and mule account detection, and a significant reduction in investigation times. We are excited that our technology is making a real difference in preventing crime and protecting consumers.”
Read the full report on Malaysia’s efforts to tackle fraud and scams (Subscription required): Central Banking Awards - Payment Services Initiative
Learn more about FNA’s anti-fraud and scam capabilities: Explore FNA's National Fraud Portal Solution
