Visa has agreed to acquire BioCatch, a behavioural and device intelligence fraud prevention provider, for USD 2.4 billion in cash.
BioCatch specialises in behavioural and multi-signal fraud intelligence, and the acquisition is intended to complement Visa's existing cyber, fraud, risk, and security offerings, with a focus on threats such as account takeovers, scams, money mules, and application fraud.
In addition, BioCatch's technology analyses application, behavioural, device, and network signals, including keystrokes, touch gestures, and device handling, to distinguish legitimate users from fraudsters in real time.
Positioning within Visa's security portfolio
The acquisition forms part of Visa's broader strategy to address cyber threats earlier in the transaction lifecycle. Andrew Torre, president of value-added services, Visa, said account takeovers and scams cost the global economy more than USD 1 trillion annually, with artificial intelligence enabling such attacks at optimised scale. With this in mind, Visa said BioCatch is expected to help clients identify fraud before it reaches the point of payment, building on existing tools such as the Visa Vulnerability Agentic Harness, an open-source AI security tool designed to help clients identify and remediate vulnerabilities. Over the past five years, Visa has invested more than USD 13 billion in technology and infrastructure aimed at protecting the payments ecosystem and reducing fraud rates.
Jackie Barwell, Director of Fraud Product Management at ACI Worldwide, provided The Paypers with an exclusive quote:
`Visa’s acquisition of BioCatch is another strong signal that the industry recognises fraud can no longer be addressed at a single point in the transaction lifecycle. As scams, account takeover fraud and AI-enabled attacks continue to evolve, financial institutions need a holistic approach that combines behavioural intelligence, real-time decisioning and cross-channel fraud orchestration.`
`This move highlights the growing importance of bringing together diverse data signals to identify risk earlier and act faster. It is a significant validation of the growing importance of behavioural intelligence as part of a modern fraud strategy. But no single signal or point solution is enough on its own. The real opportunity lies in combining behavioural insights with transaction monitoring, network intelligence and real-time decisioning to create a more complete view of fraud risk across the entire customer journey. The institutions that can orchestrate these capabilities together will be best positioned to stop fraud earlier, reduce losses and maintain customer trust in an increasingly complex threat landscape.`
Executive comment and deal terms
Gadi Mazor, CEO, BioCatch, said the company's behavioural intelligence approach has, for more than a decade, been used to distinguish criminal activity from legitimate use, and that intelligence-sharing networks between customers have since extended that capability further. The transaction adds behavioural biometrics capabilities to Visa's existing suite of AI-powered fraud and cyber-risk products, which the companies describe as spanning account opening through to transaction monitoring.
The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the end of Visa's fiscal second quarter of 2027. Visa has said the deal is expected to provide benefits for financial institution clients, consumers, and the wider payments industry once completed.
