Following the delivery of two Cyber Innovation Challenges in partnership with Microsoft, the City of London Corporation was pleased to hold an AI Innovation Challenge for 2024.  

The Challenge brought together pioneering AI-focused tech firms and financial services institutions to collaborate across a seven-week sprint to enhance and accelerate AI solutions to online fraud. Specifically, participants explored a use case which asked: “How can AI prevent online fraud at the earliest possible stage by identifying and tracking fake identities such as synthetic identities and image or audio deepfakes?”

Synthetic images, as well as deepfake images and audio are on the rise and risk enhancing and increasing Authorised Push Payment fraud, which cost the public £459.7m in 2023. Partnered with the rapid pace at which AI innovation is advancing attack methods, it is more important than ever that financial services have the most innovative technological solutions at their disposal to protect their customers and retain their competitive advantage. 

Participating financial services firms included Challenger banks, FinTechs, building societies and high street banks. Technology firms selected onto the Challenge showcased an innovative use of AI and addressed the use case in a variety of ways such as deepfake voice and video detection, and synthetic document detection.  

The Challenge concluded with a public showcase event at Guildhall. Initial findings from the Challenge have been positive, with all tech participants substantially improving their understanding of the needs of the financial services sector through taking part. This had the result of accelerating the development of their solutions, with almost half the tech participants concluding that the challenge had accelerated the development of their solutions by at least three months. Further, financial services participants achieved a better understanding of technological developments in this space and a chance to share advice and learnings with the tech participants. Crucially, nearly all of the financial services participants plan to continue engagement with at least one of the tech participants from the Challenge.  

Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman at the City of London Corporation said:  

 “While financial services are harnessing AI to innovate and improve customer experience, the rise of generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry for cybercriminals, enabling them to perpetrate online fraud on an unprecedented scale. AI-generated fake identities, for instance, are becoming alarmingly common, with one report from Deloitte indicating a staggering 700% rise in deepfake incidents last year. 

 “The AI Innovation Challenge was designed to tackle these threats – transforming bold ideas into impactful solutions to tackling online fraud. 

“As we’ve seen from previous Innovation Challenges, forums like this pave the way for deeper dialogue and collaboration, often culminating in formal partnerships and the development of solutions. 

“The City will continue to tackle online fraud and are pleased to be able to create a space for this crucial activity.” 

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

The City of London Corporation is the governing body of the Square Mile dedicated to a vibrant and thriving City, supporting a diverse and sustainable London within a globally-successful UK. www.cityoflondon.gov.uk 

Full list of companies that took part in the Challenge 

Financial services companies: 

Checkout.com 

Clear.Bank 

London Stock Exchange Group 

NatWest 

Revolut 

HSBC 

Nationwide 

Mastercard 

Tech companies: 

SureCert 

Legal-Pythia 

Athenian Tech 

Reality Defender 

Corsound AI 

Sumsub 

Ask Silver 

Sightengine 

Datambit 

iProov