Mastercard today officially announced the launch of TRACE (Trace Financial Crime) in the Philippines, making it the first market in Asia Pacific to implement the advanced network-level solution. TRACE harnesses artificial intelligence to identify and prevent money laundering and financial crime. Powered by timely and large-scale payments data from multiple financial institutions, it provides holistic intelligence beyond an individual financial institution’s siloed view, enabling tracing of financial crime across a payments network.
In recent years, Real-Time Payments (RTP) have seen a rapid rise in use among individuals and businesses across Asia Pacific, allowing transactions to be settled between accounts at different financial institutions within seconds—something which in the past often took a matter of days. However, this speed has also made it a target for money launderers and “mules”, who try to evade detection by moving funds rapidly between multiple accounts. Oftentimes, criminals also involve the accounts of unwitting civilians through methods such as romance and investment scams. In 2024, online scam complaints surged past 10,000 in the Philippines—more than triple the cases in 2023—and cybercrime losses neared ₱198 million.
“The Philippines has seen rapid digital payments growth, making it more important than ever to strengthen defenses against financial crime,” said Simon Calasanz, Country Manager, Philippines, Mastercard. “With the rampancy of cybercrime affecting consumers and financial institutions alike, the urgency for stronger, more collaborative fraud prevention solutions has never been greater.”
Financial institutions have largely relied on semi-manual methods or in-house AI solutions to detect illicit payment patterns, but these typically rely on their own data and lack the holistic, network-level perspective needed to trace such far-reaching criminal activity. Oftentimes, investigations take weeks to complete. To address this, Mastercard developed TRACE, which uses cutting-edge data science techniques to trace potentially fraudulent transaction patterns across a payments network, as well as providing proactive alerts to banks about suspicious accounts. TRACE incorporates critical data points across an entire domestic network to identify money mules involved in financial crime (such as frauds, scams, etc.), giving financial institutions a network-level perspective they wouldn’t otherwise have.
The Philippines is Mastercard’s first Asia Pacific market to implement TRACE, in collaboration with local interbank network BancNet (the switch operator of local RTP service InstaPay), with the partners having onboarded 36 domestic banks. The solution allows participating financial institutions to quickly and accurately trace dispersed illicit funds across the RTP system, identify money mule activity throughout the network, and proactively highlight suspected money laundering accounts—all of which will allow them to better adhere to the country’s new Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA).
“The launch of TRACE in Asia Pacific marks a transformative step toward safeguarding the integrity of Real-Time Payments while combatting the corrosive effects of financial crime,” said Matthew Driver, Executive Vice President, Services, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “By ensuring that transactions remain secure and compliant, TRACE helps to protect consumers and financial institutions, while also fostering trust in the digital economy—which will be critical for the region’s economic growth. Mastercard is proud to have collaborated with BancNet on its pilot rollout in the Philippines and is ready to collaborate with other stakeholders across the region to implement TRACE to create a stronger, more resilient global financial system.”
“As scams grow more sophisticated, advanced tech-powered prevention and monitoring capabilities are critical. Our partnership with Mastercard and leveraging TRACE gives us and the network participants the intelligence to help detect fraud faster, making scam prevention sharper and more effective,” said Emmie Reyes, Chief Executive Officer, BancNet.
TRACE is the first network-level solution for RTP systems developed to proactively identify money mules and trace the dispersion of funds. TRACE is network-agnostic and can be quickly and effectively implemented within the payment networks across the region, helping to protect customers from fraud and scams as well as supporting regulatory obligations.
The United Kingdom is the only other market in the world to have implemented TRACE. Launched by Mastercard in 2018, the solution is now being used by 21 financial institutions and tier-one banks, covering 90 percent of the United Kingdom’s Faster Payments Service network. Since its launch, TRACE has helped identified thousands of mule accounts and is continuing to aid uncover hundreds of new money mule accounts every month.
