Fighting Fraud with Blockchain: Kinexys and ACI Worldwide

Blockchain platform for financial movement Kinexys, owned by J.P. Morgan, has paired with payments software firm ACI Worldwide for an integrated solution aimed at helping banks to reduce fraud. 

Recent research from ACI Worldwide points to an increase in authorised push-payment (APP) fraud, highlighting a wider trend of fraud rates increasing globally. 

As a response to the data, the partnership between ACI and Kinexys will ensure embedded technology designed to bring secure data exchanges to validate account ownership. 

The rising cost of instant scams

The collaboration embeds account and payee verification directly into payment workflows. This integration allows banks to reduce fraud and protect customers while supporting safer, faster payments at scale. 

By unifying these checks within an enterprise fraud platform, institutions can apply consistent controls across various payment rails and simplify compliance as volumes grow.

According to ACI’s Scamscope report, APP scams currently generate US$4.4bn in financial losses globally – a figure projected to reach US$7.6bn by 2028. 

Notably, 63% of these losses today occur on real-time rails and that share is expected to rise toward 80% over the next three years.

“Instant payments change the economics and the timing of fraud. When payments settle in real time, verification must have happened prior to the transaction in real time as well. 

“Embedding payee confirmation into the payment flow gives banks the ability to stop fraud before it happens, while supporting the scale and speed customers expect,” explains Marc Trepanier, Director of Analytics and Optimisation for Fraud and Financial Crime, ACI Worldwide.

Blockchain-led verification at scale

Kinexys Liink operates as one of the “world’s first” bank-led peer-to-peer blockchain-based data sharing networks, the company says.

It is capable of validating account ownership and data elements across more than 70 countries. 

Because it is payment rail-agnostic, the network enables institutions to share verification requests through a single connection while maintaining data control and privacy.

The integration into ACI’s platform ensures that an account exists, is open and matches the intended recipient before any money is moved. 

This proactive approach helps financial institutions reduce misdirected payments and scams without creating friction for legitimate users.

Gloria Wan, General Manager of Kinexys Liink at Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, says: “By integrating Kinexys Liink’s Confirm application directly into ACI’s fraud management platform, we’re making it easier for institutions to meet evolving account validation requirements and help protect their customers from fraud. 

“Together, we’re supporting institutions as they adapt to a rapidly changing landscape and build greater trust in every transaction.”

The move helps institutions adapt to a landscape where consumer awareness and reimbursement pressures are forcing banks to make stronger verification a standard feature of modern infrastructure.

Unifying the fraud architecture

The technical strategy behind the integration avoids fragmented, channel-specific tools. Instead, ACI embeds verification and fraud decisioning across ACH, wire and instant payments within the workflows of ACI Connetic.

This cloud-native architecture brings account-to-account (A2A) payments, card payments and AI-driven fraud prevention into a single modular environment.

 By moving away from post-transaction monitoring – which is insufficient for instant rails – the solution provides the real-time intelligence needed to strengthen prevention and simplify operations.