Hi, fintech fam! 💜

In case you missed it—during New York Fintech Week, we didn’t just host one Summit… we pulled off two. Our annual Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit and the inaugural Fintech Security Summit.

Hosting two events in one week stretched our small but mighty team in all the ways we expected—and in plenty we didn’t. But it also reminded me why I do this.

The topic of fraud and security isn’t new to me. One of the first investigative cover stories I led as an editor was on this exact issue. (The Wolf Among Us—reply to this email if you want the link.)

Why fraud? Because understanding risk is at the core of understanding power—and how it’s distributed in fintech. If you’ve read my book, Fintech Feminists, you know: that’s an entire chapter.

Over the next few months, I’ll be unpacking the biggest narratives from the Fintech Security Summit—one column at a time—so you can stay sharp, informed, and ahead.

Today, we’re exploring how fraud prevention is a growth strategy.

Let’s get into it.

INNOVATION

In fintech’s early days, success was defined by speed. Speed to market. Speed to scale. Speed to sign the next investor check.

In 2025, fintech startups are growing up—and discovering a powerful new growth engine: trust. 

But trust doesn’t scale when your security can’t keep pace.

At our inaugural Fintech Security Summit, the theme was clear: fraud prevention is no longer a back-office obligation—it’s a front-line growth strategy. The companies that treat it that way are already winning.

And AI, long a buzzword, is finally making good on its promises—at least for those who know how to wield it.

According to Alloy’s 2025 Fraud Benchmark Report, 60% of financial institutions saw an increase in fraud events last year. It’s not just a spike—it’s a systemic threat.

And it’s expensive.

Fraud, cyberattacks, compliance headaches, and aging infrastructure are collectively costing companies nearly $100 million per year, according to FIS and Oxford Economics. These aren’t hypothetical losses—they’re existential risks. 

For startups, one breach can especially mean the difference between Series B and bankruptcy.

But the real headline? Fraud doesn’t just erode trust—it also chokes growth.

AI has flooded the market with fraud detection tools. Nearly every fintech uses some form of AI to flag bad actors and surface anomalies. 

But here’s the problem: most of those tools stop at the alert.

They tell you something might be wrong—but they don’t help you fix it.

“It’s like a home alarm that goes off when someone breaks in,” said Alloy CPO Parilee Wang. “Useful, sure. But if it doesn’t call the police or lock the doors, what’s the point?”

What’s changing now is how AI is being used. The most forward-thinking teams are shifting from predictive models to actionable intelligence—AI that doesn’t just diagnose, but responds.

Alloy’s Fraud Attack Radar is one example of what that looks like in practice. When a fintech using Alloy detects a coordinated attack on new account openings, they don’t just get an alert—they get a blueprint. 

For example: When the system detects a large-scale fraud attempt, you can immediately deploy a pre-approved “safe mode” policy—adding just enough friction to deter bad actors without disrupting the onboarding flow for legitimate users.

That balance is crucial. 

It’s the difference between watching a fire start and having the hose in your hand.

The key innovation here isn’t just the signal—it’s the closed-loop response system. 

Alloy’s tool is designed to live inside the identity and onboarding stack, meaning teams can go from detection to decision without jumping tools or losing time.

That means when a fraud signal is identified, it doesn’t just generate a report—it triggers a policy, flags specific entities, and recommends next steps.

That matters. Because every second of delay is another dollar lost—or worse, another good customer turned away.

And the system learns. 

Every fraud signal feeds back into Alloy’s machine learning models, refining risk at both the entity and portfolio level. 

It’s fraud mitigation that compounds in effectiveness over time—while empowering teams to stay focused on growth.

Historically, fraud was treated as a cost center. Something to manage, not leverage.

But fintech leaders today are reframing the role of security. When done right, fraud prevention isn’t just about minimizing losses—it’s about maximizing opportunity.

Preventing bad actors means fewer chargebacks, stronger customer retention, and a cleaner onboarding pipeline. 

And when your defenses are smart enough to respond in real time? You don’t have to pause growth to play defense.

What that looks like in practice:

When fraud detection is actionable, it becomes a competitive advantage. You’re not just securing your platform—you’re accelerating your pipeline.

That’s a mindset Alloy is betting on—and increasingly, the fintech ecosystem is following suit.

Because fraud isn’t going anywhere. AI is only making it easier for bad actors to scale attacks. 

The fintechs that survive will be the ones who can scale their defenses just as fast.

As fraudsters continue to evolve—leveraging their own generative AI tools to launch more sophisticated attacks—the arms race is far from over. 

But the winners won’t just be the ones with the best detection models. They’ll be the ones who can translate risk signals into immediate, intelligent action.

In other words, the future of fintech security belongs to the actionable.

Fraud prevention is no longer a reactive checklist. It’s an operating principle—and a growth lever hiding in plain sight.

The fintechs that recognize that now will be the ones still standing five years from now. Stronger. Smarter. And more trusted than ever.

And for fast-moving fintech teams, that shift can’t come soon enough. Because every attack that slips through doesn’t just cost money—it costs time, trust, and reputation.

As the fintech sector matures and investor expectations sharpen, leaders who adopt this mindset will have the edge. They won’t just fight fraud—they’ll flip the script and use it to fuel smarter, safer, more sustainable growth.

And that’s a future we should all want to invest in.

I'm back in the gym after a short break to wrap up all the summit planning, and Meg's new songs always get me hyped to lift again.

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That’s all for now! See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole 💜