RBIH CEO Rajesh Bansal said the AI ​​platform called Mulehunter.Ai has been used by two major public sector banks so far.

Bansal added that the accuracy percentage of the new artificial intelligence tool is three times higher than the banks’ previous manual systems.

The AI ​​tool was developed after identifying 19 patterns, including sudden transactions on a dormant account, a large debit followed by multiple credits on an account, among others.

The innovation arm of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is reportedly in talks with 10 public and private sector banks to accelerate the adoption of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform to detect cases of financial fraud through “mule accounts”.

Mule accounts refer to bank accounts used for illegal activities such as money laundering, fraud, and other illegal transactions.

Reserve Bank Innovation Center (RBIH) managing director Rajesh Bansal told Economic Times that the artificial intelligence platform, called Mulehunter.Ai, is already being used by two major public sector banks. He added that initial results from the rollout of the tool were “encouraging in terms of much better accuracy and reduced time spent.”

“If the accuracy percentage of the manual system is X, this is 3X. If the time taken is Y, it is 0.1Y,” Bansal said.

The AI ​​tool was developed after identifying 19 patterns, including sudden transactions in a dormant account, multiple credits in an account followed by a large debit, among others, the RBIH director general said.

These models were determined after the RBIH conducted stakeholder consultations with as many as 10 banks to determine the traditional approach taken by lenders when marking mule accounts.

Information from the meeting revealed that most banks still use a rules-based system. In this context, suspicious accounts were first detected and verification was done manually in all cases, causing serious loss of time.

However, the new artificial intelligence platform is expected to accelerate the detection of fake accounts. “The best way would be to look at where the money eventually goes, i.e. courier accounts,” Bansal said, adding that there are multiple channels through which scams can occur and the amount involved could be as much as INR 1 Cr “these days”. .

The comments come months after RBI governor Shaktikanta Das in July this year urged public and private sector banks to step up security measures against mule accounts and digital frauds.

Reports later emerged in October. The central bank wanted to develop an artificial intelligence-supported system alerting individuals to financial fraud in real time and enabling banks and financial institutions to detect mule accounts.

According to government data, Indians lost as much as INR 11,333 crore due to cyber fraud in the first nine months of 2024 alone. Just a few days ago, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Parliament, 6.32 Lakh UPI scam cases worth INR 485 Cr seen in the country in the first six months of the ongoing financial year 2024-25 (FY25).