ADIB deploys Visa platform to counter cyber fraud

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has become the first bank worldwide to deploy Visa’s Threat Intelligence Platform, integrating cyber and payments intelligence into its fraud-prevention operations.

The early adoption gives ADIB’s cybersecurity, fraud and risk teams real-time information on threats that could lead to stolen credentials, compromised accounts and fraudulent transactions. The bank is also working with Visa to design the platform’s first use cases and operational framework.

The deployment moves fraud detection further upstream. Instead of examining suspicious activity only when a payment is attempted, the system is designed to identify the cyber incidents that often precede financial crime. These may include phishing campaigns, malware infections, data breaches, impersonation attempts and the sale of payment credentials on underground marketplaces.

Visa launched the Threat Intelligence Platform earlier this month as a financial-sector security service built from technology used to protect its global payments network. The company says its systems block about 90 million cyberattacks and 11 million phishing emails every month across more than 200 countries and territories.

ADIB has integrated the platform into its existing fraud-prevention framework. The technology is intended to provide contextual and actionable intelligence rather than large volumes of unfiltered security alerts, helping teams assess which threats pose a direct risk to customers, systems or payment activity.

Amit Malhotra, ADIB’s global head of retail banking, said the adoption reflected the lender’s commitment to maintaining a secure and trusted banking environment. Earlier identification of payment risks would improve customer protection while supporting a resilient and seamless digital banking experience, he said.

The platform combines several categories of intelligence. It can provide indicators linked to malware, identify vulnerabilities being exploited by attackers and detect impersonation or misuse of a financial institution’s brand. It can also monitor threats directed at executives and employees, who may be targeted through phishing, social engineering or digital identity abuse.

Another function searches for compromised payment credentials and enriches the information with intelligence from Visa’s network. This can help fraud teams determine whether exposed data presents an immediate financial risk and decide which protective action should be prioritised.

Threat information can be delivered through a central interface, application programming interfaces and email reports. It can also be connected to security information and event management platforms, case-management systems and fraud-monitoring tools, allowing banks to incorporate intelligence into established operational processes.

The system draws information from security companies, government bodies, external threat feeds and Visa’s proprietary intelligence. Indicators of compromise are filtered and ranked using risk scoring and time-to-live logic, which assesses how long a threat signal is likely to remain relevant.

VTIP can track attackers and campaigns by linking newly discovered indicators with known tactics, infrastructure and targeting patterns. Visa says the platform does not require institutions to submit transaction or payment-card data. Customers may provide limited identifiers, such as corporate domains, when requesting specific monitoring services.

Salima Gutieva, Visa’s vice-president and country manager for the UAE, said the deployment would add depth to the company’s work with financial institutions seeking to strengthen resilience and protect customers. ADIB’s participation also demonstrated the collaboration required to support a secure and inclusive payments system, she said.

The agreement builds on a cybersecurity partnership announced by ADIB and Visa at the World Governments Summit in Dubai in February 2025. That arrangement covered threat intelligence, artificial intelligence-based fraud controls and real-time risk-assessment technology intended to improve digital-payment security.

Walter Lironi, Visa’s senior vice-president and head of value-added services for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said cyberattacks were becoming more targeted and harder to detect at an early stage. Combining payments and cyber intelligence could give financial institutions clearer information before an attack developed into fraud, he said.

The deployment comes as banks face a shift in criminal methods. Stronger network controls and authentication technologies have made some forms of direct payment intrusion more difficult, encouraging criminals to target customers and employees through deception.

Artificial intelligence has lowered the cost of producing convincing phishing messages, fake identities, cloned voices and manipulated video. Such tools allow fraudsters to operate at greater scale and tailor scams to individual victims, while compromised credentials can remain unused for weeks or months before appearing in a transaction.