In a day that underscored India’s rapidly evolving financial crime landscape, industry veterans, technology pioneers, and regulatory experts convened at the India Fraud Risk Summit & Awards 2025 on May 16 at Hotel Radisson Blu, Mumbai. The summit brought together more than 40 speakers from leading banks, fintech companies, insurance firms, and regulatory agencies for a full-day exchange of ideas, strategies, and innovations aimed at staying ahead of fraud in the digital economy.
The event was inaugurated by Prof. Triveni Singh, ex-IPS officer and Chief Mentor of the Future Crime Research Foundation (FCRF), who served as the Chief Guest. Addressing a packed hall, Singh reflected on the paradigm shift in fraud methodologies—from manual deception to algorithm-driven digital crime rings.
“We must now think beyond conventional fraud detection. Digital frauds operate at machine speed, and our response must combine actionable data, human intelligence, and regulatory agility,” he said.
The opening panel, titled “Payment Fraud Protection: Face up to the Challenge,” delved into strategies to curb real-time payment fraud, account takeovers, and misuse of digital identity. Leaders like Manish Agrawal (HDFC Bank), Damodaran Chambath (Federal Bank), Anish Chowdhary (IBDIC), and Pankaj Mohta (SMFG India Credit) shared insights on transaction monitoring, AI-driven risk flagging, and geo-location data analysis. Topics such as location ID tagging, payment app movement tracking, and predictive scoring drew wide engagement from the audience.
This was followed by corporate presentations by FinBox and Bureau ID, highlighting how data science is being leveraged to “supercharge fraud intelligence” and fuse behavioral identity for early anomaly detection. The event served as a networking hub for fraud prevention officers and tech specialists from across the country.
The post-lunch session on “Generative AI in Financial Crime Control” saw spirited discussions on the deployment of AI in anti-money laundering (AML), reducing false positives, and preempting complex fraud chains. Representing the Aditya Birla Capital Group, Ajay Kumar Kanth, Head of the Fraud Risk Management Unit, who received the Digital Lending Anti Fraud Leader award on behalf of ABC, laid out the urgent need for real-time detection systems across financial products:
“The era of post-fraud reaction is over. We are now building systems that detect, prevent, and even explain fraud patterns in real time, across digital lending, payments, and insurance.”
The session, moderated by Drona Pay CEO Satish Kashyap, included expert interventions by leaders from HSBC, HDFC Bank, Piramal Housing Finance, and Yes Securities. The recurring theme was how automation and AI are helping financial institutions shift from lagging indicators to leading ones.
Panel 3 and Panel 4 focused on Fraud Analytics and Identity Trust, respectively. These sessions tackled advanced topics such as unstructured data analysis, ML-based fraud tagging, and the role of AI in reducing internal fraud. Discussions were led by representatives from Axis Max Life, RBL Bank, Universal Sompo, and Edelweiss Life Insurance.
Deepak Vatsa, SVP and National Head of Risk & Loss Mitigation at HDFC ERGO, emphasized the criticality of data science in proactive defense mechanisms:
“We’ve moved from risk mitigation to risk anticipation. Data analytics helps us trace patterns before fraud matures into loss, which is now the gold standard in fraud prevention.”
A special keynote address by Srijan Nagar, Co-founder of FinBox, touched on emerging risks in embedded finance and how the next wave of fraud will target API infrastructure and real-time data lakes. He urged companies to build resilient data environments that can flag and isolate suspicious vectors dynamically.
The day concluded with the India Fraud Risk Awards 2025, recognizing over 20 categories including “Best Use of Data Analytics,” “Digital Lending Anti-Fraud Leader,” and “Financial Crime Fighter of the Year.” The awards honored industry leaders who demonstrated excellence in fraud prevention, regulatory compliance, and cyber intelligence.
The summit didn’t just underline the technological arms race in fraud detection; it spotlighted the human capital and institutional commitment behind it. As digital transactions continue to rise across Bharat and India alike, events like these become critical national platforms—fostering cross-sector collaboration in the war against fraud.