Visa Desjardins Selects HNC's Falcon to Stem Card Fraud

HNC Software Inc, announced that Visa Desjardins, a subsidiary of the Mouvement des caisses Desjardins and the primary issuer of Visa cards in Quebec, will implement Falcon, HNC's industry-leading payment card fraud detection system, to enhance the fraud detection capabilities for its credit card portfolios.

"We look forward to enjoying the reduced fraud rates that other Canadian card issuers are seeing with Falcon," said Louise Paquette, chief security officer at Visa Desjardins. "We've always provided the highest level of fraud detection for our merchants and cardholders, and augmenting our systems with Falcon is the logical next step to match our aggressive portfolio growth strategy over the next few years."

After years of 40 percent annual card fraud growth during the latter part of the 1990's, Canadian credit card issuers are starting to see a decline in fraud rates due to their increased use of neural network fraud detection solutions. According to the Canadian Bankers Association, credit card fraud cost Canadian financial institutions and card issuers nearly $227 million (Canadian) (approximately $156 million US) in 1999. This figure dropped to $203 (Canadian) million for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2000, indicating that best practice fraud detection solutions such as Falcon are gaining traction in the war against card fraud. Verifying this trend, Visa Canada reported 1999 credit card losses at $150 million (Canadian), and had projected losses in 2000 to top the $200 million mark. Instead, losses from card fraud dropped approximately 40 percent for the year. HNC's list of Canadian Falcon customers includes major institutions such as CIBC, Toronto Dominion, and Canada Trust.

"We're glad that Falcon is helping stem the tide of payment card fraud in Canada, as it has done in the United States and overall in North America," said Michael Chiappetta, vice president of customer analytics for HNC Software. "We're confident that Visa Desjardins will gain the reduced credit and debit card fraud rates with Falcon with which our other Canadian customers have benefited."

Falcon, a neural network-based predictive software system that examines transaction, cardholder, and merchant data to detect a wide range of payment card fraud, currently protects more than 400 million payment card accounts worldwide.

About Mouvement des caisses Desjardins

With more than 36,000 employees and overall assets reaching $80 billion, the Mouvement des caisses Desjardins is the top financial institution and the largest private employer in Quebec. It is the only institution to offer a full range of financial products and services through its network of caisses (ATM's) located throughout Quebec. In addition, Desjardins is a leader in Quebec in terms of e-commerce with more than 1.5 million visits per month. It's Web site, www.desjardins.com, is the most frequented financial site in Quebec and second overall in Canada. 28,000 companies are already using its AccesD Affaires business service. The Mouvement Desjardins' mission is to contribute to the economic and social well being of individuals and communities.

About HNC Software Inc

HNC Software is a leading provider of Customer Insight solutions including intelligent response, decision management, and customer analytics software that enables companies in the financial, telecommunications, e-commerce and insurance industries to acquire, manage and retain customers. For more information, visit www.hnc.com or contact Rob Jensen at 858-799-8122.

Contact HNC Software Inc, Rob Jensen, 858-799-8122, erj@hnc.com.