Mastercard joins UNDP, the United Nations Development Program, and signs a memorandum of understanding to work together to deepen understanding of the impact of digital fraud on development and ways to detect and combat them.
Digital fraud represents a serious global challenge with enormous financial losses and often devastating impacts on people and communities. The annual global financial loss from fraud has been estimated at a staggering $1.026 trillion¹, but could be even greater as many incidents go unreported . Digital frauds undermine the progress of the development agenda and undermine the trust that is fundamental to an inclusive digital transformation. These impacts are particularly serious for developing countries. The challenge is complex as it crosses national borders, sectors and disciplines and continues to rapidly evolve in technology and complexity, highlighting the need for a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach.
In order to better understand these challenges and provide impetus for overcoming them, the UNDP Global Center for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development in Singapore is bringing together a global coalition of partners from international and local public and private institutions as well as civil society for a project To improve understanding of the impact of digital fraud on development, with a focus on developing countries.
As a pioneer in protecting global networks, Mastercard is uniquely positioned to provide practical insight into cyber fraud and scams. It is the first private sector organization to join this coalition, underscoring the company’s commitment to supporting global and regional efforts to improve the cyber resilience of digital economies. Mastercard will leverage its global expertise and extensive experience in using technology to combat fraud, as well as share best practices and industry insights to help improve cybersecurity standards and combat digital fraud.
“Digital fraud is detrimentally impacting the global development agenda and it is imperative that we deepen our understanding of the full complexity of the problem, particularly as it relates to developing countries.” We welcome Mastercard’s experience in combating digital fraud as well as its Detection technologies and industry expertise on consumer protection that are critical to the global coalition and our joint efforts to ensure global progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Marcos Neto, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of the UNDP Office for Policy – and program support.
“In today’s connected world, fostering trust is critical to achieving an inclusive digital economy. This is especially true when online fraud is as widespread and sophisticated as the technology itself. “Mastercard continues its efforts to address the increasing threat to business and consumers and is proud to partner with UNDP and leverage our deep expertise, our advanced “To bring together technology and our innovative practices to advance the sustainable development of economies worldwide,” said Ari Sarker, President, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.
In the coming months, the global coalition will develop a report on the socio-economic impact of digital fraud and a framework for addressing the complex dynamics at global, national, societal and individual levels, with particular attention to developing countries. These findings will be used to develop a toolkit for joint action to combat digital fraud. This toolkit, which includes strategies, best practices and capacity building resources, aims to catalyze effective multi-stakeholder interventions against digital fraud.