Mastercard to acquire Brighterion, beef up AI capability

Before 2011, the term "artificial intelligence" rarely cropped up in The Green Sheet. Since then, mention of artificial intelligence (AI) has gradually increased to the point where, like "fintech" and "payfac," it appears routinely in news, views and feature articles throughout the magazine. Indeed, AI is on the rise in the payments sphere. This is evidenced by today's news that Mastercard intends to purchase Brighterion Inc., a software company specializing in AI.

Describing Brighterion in a press release about the acquisition, Mastercard wrote, "Brighterion offers the world’s deepest and broadest portfolio of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, providing real-time intelligence from all data sources regardless of type, complexity and volume. Our technologies are successfully applied in cyber and homeland security, anti-money laundering (AML), real-time cross-channel fraud prevention, onboarding and risk monitoring, behavioral device ID, data breach detection, marketing, trading, healthcare and biotech."

Mastercard noted that its suite of security products already uses AI, and Brighterion’s Smart Agent technology will be added to the suite. "The resulting insights and capabilities from the combined team will deliver even greater accuracy and a new element in managing risk and protecting the consumer," the company stated.

Ajay Bhalla, President of Enterprise Risk and Security for Mastercard, added, "To fully realize the promise of our increasingly digital lives, we need to design our payment systems with the future in mind and that’s what we’re doing. Our unprecedented use of artificial intelligence on our network is already proving successful. With the acquisition of Brighterion, we will further extend our capabilities to support the consumer experience."

Brighterion founder and Chief Executive Officer Akli Adjaoute said it all comes down to intelligent decisioning at the time of the transaction. "We’ve worked with Mastercard over the years to identify patterns and trends to power their most advanced customers’ authorization and decisioning activities," he said. "We look forward to building on that foundation and providing an industry-leading, holistic and seamless security experience."

The companies declined to disclose their agreement's terms but indicated closing of the transaction is subject customary conditions, including the expiration or early termination of the applicable waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.

Editor's Note:

The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.