Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - Who is GBG?

Digital trust is under siege. Now more than ever, Australian and New Zealand organisations are grappling with complex threats to identity and security in an increasingly digital world.

Carol Chris, Regional General Manager for ANZ at GBG, says the solution lies in equipping businesses with better tools to safely onboard and protect customers while meeting tough regulations. Speaking in an exclusive interview, Chris highlighted how GBG, a global specialist in identity management, location intelligence and fraud prevention, is partnering with banks, gaming operators, government entities and major retailers to navigate this evolving landscape.

"We're a UK-listed global technology specialist in fraud compliance management, identity verification and location data intelligence," Chris said. "We've probably got about 20,000 customers around the world and really our focus has been to support them in creating a simple and secure digital experience for their customers."

GBG's influence in the region is significant, with over 750 customers in Australia and New Zealand. Their client list includes some of the biggest names in finance and retail, along with public sector organisations and gaming companies. "Top tier banks, finance companies, key retailers, and most of the gaming and wagering companies" rely on GBG's solutions, she explained.

Fraud and compliance are at the core of GBG's offer. Chris detailed how their end-to-end fraud engine is designed to help institutions identify and act on risk across the customer lifecycle. "In simple language, it's really around ensuring you identify fraud up front when you're onboarding a customer and throughout the lifecycle of a customer so really that end-to-end fraud management which is key for companies today to really be proactive and preemptive when it comes to mitigating risk," she said.

With regulatory pressures mounting, particularly in financial services, GBG is responding with innovation. "We provide for those regulated entities in financial services the whole end-to-end digital identity verification platform with our flagship product called GreenID," Chris explained. "That product actually verifies consumers very quickly and seamlessly in seconds while also ensuring that financial institutions can comply with the regulatory requirements in both the Australian and New Zealand market."

Underpinning these solutions is a continuous investment in new technology. "We're constantly innovating that GreenID solution to ensure that we're offering best-in-class technology," she said, highlighting recent advances in facial biometric verification and passive liveness detection, which ensure that only genuine users can access secure systems.

For many businesses, especially online retailers, accurate verification of customer location is also pivotal. "The address look-up and that auto-completion is done automatically and accurately so that it goes to the right person and you actually get the delivery as a consumer and the retailer doesn't get the returns because it's gone to an incorrect address," Chris said. "This solution actually supports e-commerce retailers again to ensure they're giving a great experience to their end consumers as well."

GBG's reach is broad. Chris listed the sectors her company services, noting, "We probably cover about 14 different segments in the market again across Australia and New Zealand – the traditional banks, financial services organisations, superannuation, buy now pay later, remittance, cryptocurrency, gaming and wagering, government and education".

She gave a glimpse into the company's stellar client portfolio, mentioning names like Citibank, ING, American Express, National Australia Bank, Suncorp and education departments. "These are just some of the brand names that are our customers and use some of our portfolio to support their business," she said.

For many of these clients, the main challenge is the same – maintaining security and trust in an environment riddled with new forms of fraud. Chris remarked, "I think one of the biggest challenges today is around securing trust in a digital economy. We are in the business of creating digital trust between an organisation and their customers."

She emphasised how critical such trust is for organisations managing sensitive accounts and transactions online. "When you're looking to either set up an account with a bank or transact financially with any organisation you want to ensure that you trust that organisation and nothing will go wrong," she said.

Unfortunately, as the world moved online during the pandemic, cybercriminals became more brazen. "Consumers and organisations have been vulnerable and susceptible to attacks," Chris said. "Fraudsters, particularly in the last few months, you would have all heard of just some of these fraudsters contacting people and looking for ways to get your details over the phone, online – it can be a phone call, it can be an email, it can be a text – pretending to be the ATO or the government to convince innocent consumers to give their personal information."

She warned of the real dangers of even a single misstep. "One wrong click, one wrong transaction can actually be really devastating to the consumer and to organisations," Chris added.

To help mitigate these risks, GBG offers proactive, intelligent tools for early fraud detection. "Some of the tools from our fraud suite actually support organisations being able to detect suspicious activity before it becomes a fraudulent act," she said. "Having the right tools to be preemptive and to be able to monitor things helps financial organisations in particular to identify areas where trust has been broken."

Looking forward, Chris concluded by reiterating the importance of digital trust. "That trust piece that is key to the digital economy is something that we see as pretty critical for us to support and ensure we take the pain away for consumers and organisations," she said. "Having the right tools to be preemptive and to be able to monitor things helps financial organisations in particular to identify areas where trust has been broken."