Card payment company Visa this week announced the launch of the Visa Threat Intelligence Platform (VTIP), a sophisticated solution designed to assist financial institutions in identifying and addressing cyber threats before they escalate into fraud and financial losses.

The platform leverages the same advanced cybersecurity technologies and capabilities that the company currently uses to protect its own global network.

Fraud is frequently the consequence of earlier cyber attacks, which often begin with data breaches, credential theft, or the exploitation of systems long before a financial transaction takes place.

These attacks, which expose payment data, can originate from any point within the payment ecosystem, including merchants, card issuers, payment acquirers, and payment service providers.

In some instances, stolen data is traded illegally and subsequently misused, leading to both financial losses and operational disruption.

“Fraud is often the result of cyber attacks that are not identified in time,” said Nikos Petrakis, Country Manager of Visa in Greece.

“With the Visa Threat Intelligence Platform, we are helping financial institutions to identify risks early and respond in a more targeted manner, before they evolve into fraud or financial losses,” he added.

“By combining cybersecurity and payment data, we enable our clients to protect their customers more effectively, limit the harmful impact of fraud, and strengthen trust in digital payments,” noted the Country Manager.

Currently, the company prevents approximately 90 million cyber attacks and 11 million phishing emails every month across more than 200 countries, with the aim of achieving zero breaches and zero downtime.

The platform was developed by the internal cyber defence teams at Visa and was tested extensively on its global payment network to ensure that clients receive the same expertise used to protect one of the world’s largest payment platforms.

By acting as its own first customer, the company validated the platform against real-world attacks before making the solution available to the wider ecosystem, helping it stay one step ahead of emerging threats.

The platform is designed specifically for the financial sector, helping security, fraud prevention, and risk management teams to evaluate data more effectively and focus on information directly related to fraud risk.

Capabilities include the identification of malicious software and signs of compromise adapted for the financial sector, as well as the highlighting of vulnerabilities relevant to each organisation.

It also provides brand intelligence to identify and address incidents of impersonation and brand misuse, along with digital identity intelligence to protect executives and employees from targeted personal attacks.

Furthermore, the platform offers financial intelligence that identifies stolen payment credentials from the dark web and correlates them with network data, turning them into actionable insights for risk management teams.

By combining this information, the platform helps financial institutions to assess threats early, prioritise mitigation actions, and reduce the likelihood of cyber attacks developing into full-scale fraud.

The company has maintained a leading role in securing digital payments, having invested more than 13 billion dollars over the past five years in technologies that strengthen network security and reduce fraud.

As online risks continue to evolve, financial institutions require solutions that meet the growing demands of the payment ecosystem.

With this new platform, the company is extending its proven cybersecurity capabilities to financial institutions, contributing to the timely resolution of threats and the ongoing reinforcement of trust in digital payments.