Account takeover fraud has long been a silent drain on digital banking trust in the Philippines. Fraudsters armed with stolen credentials, synthetic identities, and increasingly sophisticated deepfake tools have found ways to slip past traditional defenses. UnionDigital Bank, the digital banking arm of UnionBank of the Philippines, decided that passwords and one-time PINs were no longer enough. In 2025, it deployed iProov’s biometric verification technology. The result was unequivocal: zero successful account takeovers since implementation.
The Scale of the Fraud Problem
The numbers explain the urgency. Before deploying iProov, roughly 60% of UnionDigital’s login attempts were fraudulent. After the technology was implemented, that figure dropped to between 10% and 20%. The Philippines’ suspected digital fraud rate stood at 4.1% in 2025, higher than the global rate of 3.8% for the sixth consecutive year, according to TransUnion data cited by the bank’s chief information security officer, Russell Hernandez. Deepfake and AI-generated fraud are on the rise, making static authentication methods obsolete.
How iProov’s Liveness Detection Works
iProov’s technology is not a simple selfie check. Dynamic Liveness, one of the solutions used by UnionDigital, stacks approximately 20 AI models into a single verification product. A user must pass multiple layers of verification before being granted access. The stack makes it extremely difficult for attackers to test the system through trial and error, because they cannot identify which verification layer they have failed. Express Liveness provides a faster, lower-friction option for routine transactions, while Dynamic Liveness adds a higher-security layer for sensitive actions. Crucially, the technology operates on decades-old mobile devices with poor cameras and limited processing power, a critical feature in the Philippine market where many users rely on entry-level smartphones.
Deterrence, Not Just Detection
One of the most striking outcomes is the deterrent effect. Fraudsters are abandoning account takeover attempts when confronted with biometric authentication checks. Hernandez noted that the technology has not only reduced attacks but is deterring future attempts. This behavioral shift is significant. In fraud prevention, the perception of impenetrability is as valuable as the actual defense. When attackers learn that a particular bank’s authentication is too costly or too complex to bypass, they move on.
A Blueprint for the Industry
UnionDigital’s experience offers a practical roadmap for other Philippine banks and e-wallets. The partnership with iProov demonstrates that AI-driven biometric verification can be deployed at scale without sacrificing accessibility. As the BSP tightens its stance on SMS-based OTPs and pushes financial institutions toward hardware-based multi-factor authentication and behavioral monitoring, solutions like liveness detection are moving from optional upgrades to baseline requirements. For Filipino consumers, the message is reassuring: the bank on the other side of the screen is investing in defenses that evolve as fast as the threats.
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