The tie-up between North American Bancard and Virtualitics comes as the payments industry leans more on artificial intelligence and data analytics for fraud prevention.

An Argus Research report estimated that cybercrime-related damages could reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. Faced with the prospect of rising fraud, experts from credit reporting agency Experian and IT services and consulting firm Capgemini foresee regulators and private sector companies relying more on artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics and cloud technology to fight fraudulent transactions. 

“Above all else, we want to make sure our merchants are both protected and given as many tools as possible to run successful businesses,” Jim Parkinson, chief experience officer at North American Bancard, said in a statement regarding its Virtualitics partnership. “Partnering with Virtualitics allows us to share the latest data insights to ensure merchants are in the know about hidden patterns and can take action within their industries.”

Prior to linking with Virtualitics, North American Bancard forged a partnership with Hawk:AI, a Munich, Germany-based real-time transaction monitoring company, in 2021. North American Bancard teamed up with Hawk:AI to integrate machine learning technology into its fraud prevention protocol, according to an April 2021 press release.

Later that year, North American Bancard rolled out a payments developer platform where developers could view product information, integrate other software and talk to the company’s technical sales and engineering teams, the company said in the November 2021 release. 

North American Bancard also acquired business-to-business payments company PayTrace at the end of 2021, according to a company news release.