Banco Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank have teamed up to combat financial fraud, one of the biggest challenges in banking. Banks are working on tools to exchange vital information and data to help prevent financial crime.

They founded FrauDfense, a company that will bring together banks’ anti-fraud initiatives. FrauDfense has been presented to the competent regulatory and control authorities. The alliance will first develop a tool to share information about fraud and effective responses. This tool will keep information private and secure.

The Alliance will fight fraud, which can take on many sophisticated forms, such as new account fraud (when a customer’s identity is stolen to purchase a product), online fraud, and card payments .

FrauDfense, an ambitious association to start in Spain, is not a closed book. After the initial phase, the alliance will consider adding other banks and companies to increase its reach. Banks and businesses in other industries interested in sharing fraudulent information to protect customers, organizations and society at large will also be able to participate. Carlos Requena will be appointed CEO of FrauDfense and the board will include two representatives from each bank. These include Carles Solé Pascual, Santander España’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO); Daniel Barriuso, Banco Santander Group Transformation Manager; Natalia Ortega, Head of Global Financial Crime, BBVA; Sergio Fidalgo, Head of Security at BBVA Group; Sofia Karapatsiou, Director of Fraud Control and Governance, CaixaBank, and Lorenzo Malo, CISO of CaixaBank.

BBVA’s Natalia Ortega will be the first female president of FrauDfense, a role that will rotate every two years among the three member banks.