Visa has helped New Zealand financial institutions avoid $273 million in fraudulent transactions through the payment services provider’s Visa Advanced Authorisation (VAA).

VAA is an artificial intelligence-based real-time payment fraud monitoring feature that helps prevent enumeration and ransomware attacks.

Visa defines enumeration as the criminal practice of using automation to test and guess payment credentials such as account numbers, CVV2, and/or expiry dates during online checkout.

In the first half of last year, Visa witnessed a 40 per cent increase in enumeration attacks.

“Preventing more than $270 million in fraud is an incredible testament to Visa’s AI-powered security capabilities, yet is also a sobering reminder that security has to keep pace with innovation,” said Joe Cunningham, head of risk for Visa Asia Pacific.

“As new ways to buy, sell and move money become popular with consumers and businesses, they become equally popular with fraudsters seeking to exploit any vulnerabilities in the system.”

Visa said that it is planning to introduce a real-time payment fraud prevention service to New Zealand this year to help financial institutions analyse transactions in real time and provide immediate risk assessments.