KBC has launched a new anti-fraud feature designed to protect customers from authorised push payment scams by allowing a trusted contact to review suspicious transactions before they are completed.

The Belgian bank is rolling out the “guardian angel” feature to more than four million customers following a pilot involving over 2,000 users earlier this year. KBC said it is the first solution of its kind in Belgium and has offered to make the concept available to other financial institutions.

The feature has been developed in response to the rise of human takeover fraud, where criminals manipulate victims into authorising payments themselves rather than breaching banking systems directly. Common examples include romance scams, friendship scams and fraudulent investment schemes.

Customers can nominate a trusted individual, such as a family member or friend, to act as their guardian angel. If KBC's fraud detection systems identify a payment as suspicious, the transaction is temporarily paused while both the customer and their nominated contact receive an alert.

KBC's fraud team also contacts the guardian angel to verify the payment before it can be approved or rejected.

During the pilot, the bank said the feature successfully prevented customers from losing money to fraud. One participant was able to stop suspicious transfers from her father's account after receiving an alert while fraudsters were attempting to convince him his savings needed to be moved to a “safe” account.

According to KBC, the guardian angel only has visibility of the flagged transaction and cannot access account balances, banking credentials or other payments.

The feature forms part of KBC's wider fraud prevention strategy, which includes a transaction monitoring platform that analyses every digital payment against more than 150 warning indicators and 700 fraud patterns in under four seconds.

The bank has also introduced additional security measures, including its “check your conversation” verification tool, which helps customers confirm they are communicating with KBC, and a mandatory four-hour cooling-off period before increases to payment limits take effect.

KBC said several organisations have already expressed interest in adopting the guardian angel concept.

Karen Van De Woestyne, director of digital transformation and ecosystems at KBC, said the bank wanted to introduce a stronger human element into fraud prevention.

“If fraudsters abuse trust, then trust should also be part of the solution,” she said. “The strength of guardian angel lies not only in the technology, but also in the human aspect. The tool was developed in less than a year by colleagues from different teams across KBC who witness the impact fraud can have on customers every day.

“They wanted to create a way for people to help spot the warning signs and see through a fraudster's story.”

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