ADIB Tests Visa Threat Intelligence Before Payment Fraud

Payment fraud prevention is moving earlier in the attack chain at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, after a joint ADIB-Visa announcement covered by Economy Middle East identified the lender as the first bank globally to deploy Visa’s new Threat Intelligence Platform and help shape its first banking use cases.

The deployment gives the bank a tool for linking cyber incidents, stolen credentials and vulnerable systems to later payment-fraud risk before a transaction is attempted.

The source-backed contrast is capability against proof: ADIB now has an early threat-intelligence layer, while measured customer-level fraud reduction remains outside the announcement.

Threat Intelligence Enters ADIB Fraud Operations

The bank has integrated the platform into its existing fraud-prevention framework.

Cybersecurity, fraud and risk teams will receive real-time threat information in a format built for financial services rather than broad cyber-alert feeds.

The operating change combines two data layers that banks often manage separately.

Cybersecurity teams track breaches, exposed credentials and exploited systems, while fraud teams watch payment behaviour and suspicious transactions.

The platform is intended to connect those signals early enough for investigation before a payment loss develops.

The payment network says it developed the product using the same defence capabilities it uses across its global payment network.

The company says its own systems block about 90 million cyberattacks and 11 million phishing emails every month across more than 200 countries.

The product is not limited to a general warning feed.

Its modules include malware-based indicators of compromise for financial institutions, vulnerability intelligence for software weaknesses and brand-intelligence functions that can flag impersonation through fake websites, applications or communications.

Digital-identity intelligence covers threats aimed at executives and employees, while the financial-intelligence layer looks for compromised payment credentials circulating on the dark web.

VisaNet data is then used to enrich those signals so bank teams can judge whether stolen credentials may connect to their own customers or payment activity.

Bank Teams Get Earlier Risk Signals

Amit Malhotra, Global Head of Retail Banking at ADIB, framed the early adoption as part of the bank’s investment in innovation and secure banking.

Earlier risk identification is presented as a customer-protection measure for its digital banking channels.

The joint announcement presents the rollout as an initial external deployment for a platform first tested inside the payment network's own infrastructure.

The UAE lender is helping shape how the system is applied inside a banking environment, including the practical handoff between threat-intelligence teams, fraud operations and risk controls.

Salima Gutieva, the network's UAE country manager, linked the adoption to the collaboration needed for a secure and inclusive UAE payments ecosystem.

The implementation follows an agreement the bank and the payments company signed during the World Governments Summit in February 2025.

That memorandum of understanding covered advanced cybersecurity capabilities, AI-powered fraud-prevention tools and real-time risk-assessment technology for cardholder payments and transactions in the UAE.

UAE Payments Security Gets A Bank-Level Trial

For UAE banking and payments operators, the main change is not a new customer-facing payment product.

The launch puts a risk-control layer behind digital banking services, where compromised credentials or cyber incidents can later become card or account fraud.

The model also moves the payment network’s additional services deeper inside bank security operations.

Payment networks already see fraud patterns across merchants, issuers and geographies; this deployment tests whether that network view can be made useful to a single bank’s prevention workflow without overloading teams with generic cyber data.

Walter Lironi, the regional value-added services head, described financial institutions as major targets as cyberattacks become more frequent and difficult to identify early.

The platform is meant to help institutions shift from reactive fraud handling towards earlier cyber-risk detection.

The bank’s scale gives the trial a material operating base.

ADIB has AED287 billion in assets, retail and corporate banking businesses, and operations across five strategic markets including Egypt, the United Kingdom, Qatar and Iraq.

The joint announcement gives no customer-level fraud-reduction figure, pricing terms or wider bank rollout timetable.

It also leaves measured fraud-loss reductions and investigation-time changes outside the public record.