TJ Horan

This week marks approximately a year since our new normal started and became, well, our ‘new normal’. While the phrase has become a bit hackneyed (I did grit my teeth a bit while I wrote that first sentence), this past year the pandemic truly impacted not just major parts of our personal lives, but how we handle our fight against fraud and financial crime.  To…

This past year, financial institutions (along with the rest of us), had their world turned upside down.  Many institutions had to balance taking the express route to becoming truly digital businesses.  Also managing radically different customer behavior and suddenly having a workforce that was predominately working from home.  All while still keepi…

People and the processes we develop for them are an integral part of ensuring your successful convergence of fraud and financial crime capabilities. In the final part of my three-part fireside chat with Julie Conroy, research director for Aite Group's Fraud & AML practice, we discuss what you need to know to start implementing fraud and financial crimes co…

Last year I blogged a lot about how payments and fraud patterns have changed. But despite the COVID pandemic having effected massive changes in the ways consumers transact, credit card fraud is still a “thing,” and a big, ever-changing thing at that. In this blog post I’ll do some quick level-setting with 2019 card fraud numbers, touch on what that looked like for 202…

Many in the industry know that I’m a strong proponent of Fraud and Financial Crimes Convergence, so I’m often asked about just what organizations should do from a technology standpoint. Julie Conroy, research director for Aite Group's Fraud & AML practice, and I recently sat down for a fireside chat to discuss just that topic as part of a three-part series…

This past year has been anything but normal, but one of the few things that has held steady is my advocacy around fraud and financial crimes convergence. With the industry – and the rest of the world – going through so many changes, I teamed up with Julie Conroy, research director for Aite Group's Fraud & AML practice, to share our perspectives not only on why…

If you’re like me, maybe you were confused when you read “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller in 10th grade English. What exactly was “the crucible?” I thought it was something we used in chemistry lab. That said, my 2021 fraud predictions have nothing to do with witchcraft – although 2020 has certainly conjured unprecedented challenges – and everything to do with the meta…

I recently had the honor of participating in a session on Fraud and Financial Crimes Convergence at the Aite Financial Crime Forum.  The insightful panel included Chuck Subrt from Aite, Heather Allen from Peoples Bank, Erick Kraus from FIS and Brent Wellington from Ally Bank. For those of you that missed it, and even those who caught it but want a refresher, h…

Having become a pro at Zoom meetings during the pandemic, I’m excited to up my game a notch this Wednesday, September 30. I’ll be participating in an excellent panel, “Balancing Fraud Prevention & the Customer Experience,” at the first virtual edition of CBA LIVE, the must-attend annual event for the retail banking industry. What’s great about virtual conferences…

With temperatures frequently north of 100º, Arizona gets mighty hot in the summer. It turns out that during the summer of COVID-19, it’s also a hotbed of money muling, a criminal act that can be defined as: The role of transferring stolen funds. Typically, money mules are unwittingly tricked into depositing a fraudulent check into a bank account or into receiving…

Welcome to another instalment of “Confessions of a Payments Professional.” This week’s reveal: prior to March 2020, I had never used the mobile deposit feature of the banking app on my phone. Since then, I’ve deposited nearly a dozen checks using this nifty capability. What does it mean? First, I still get a lot of paper checks. Second, after I figured out how to use…

As a result of COVID-19, the use of contactless payments is expected to rise 10–15% in the U.S. according to  Mercator Advisory Group Analyst Peter Reville.  This is an estimate he shared in a recent American Banker article. And we’re continuing to see increases of its usage worldwide.  With this uptick in usage leaving many wondering just how secure th…