Velera – formerly PSCU/Co-op Solutions, today announced its partnership with The Knoble, a global alliance dedicated to disrupting human crime.

Comprising financial services professionals, law enforcement, regulators and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), partners of The Knoble and its network aim to lead and innovate more effective ways to fight human crime. The Knoble’s mission is to harness the collective power of these groups and unite them in a shared commitment to combat human trafficking, child exploitation, financial scams, elder abuse and other forms of exploitation that leave individuals vulnerable and at risk of personal or financial harm.

Financial institutions are on the frontlines of a majority of human crimes, making them uniquely positioned to stop crime at the source. By employing a three-pronged approach, The Knoble works with financial services partners to:

• Increase awareness of these crimes

• Awaken others to the opportunity to access greater insight through financial clues and learn how to leverage these clues to fight human crime

• Collaborate across disciplines to innovate new solutions and processes that can be shared across the entire ecosystem

Professionals from more than 565 financial institutions have joined forces with The Knoble in an effort to uncover the hidden clues of these crimes that may lie within financial transaction processes.

“We are pleased to have Velera join us in our efforts to suppress human crimes and, more specifically, financial scams, given the CUSO’s expertise,” said The Knoble Director of Partnerships Ken Goins. “Our central belief is that human crime has a money trail, and we cannot afford to ignore it. With the support and resources of strong financial industry partners like Velera, we are confident we can better follow that trail and stop human crime at the source.”

Velera’s collaboration with The Knoble is just one of the many ways in which the company is working to identify, prevent and ultimately stop fraudulent activities. Velera has built an industry-leading suite of fraud management tools to block fraud at the point of sale, in the contact center and online, among other channels. Through its partnership with The Knoble, Velera will better enable credit unions to recognize and prevent scams, one of the top precursors to card fraud. Access to educational materials will also aid credit unions in managing reputational risk and compliance concerns.

“Velera is grateful to The Knoble for establishing this unique alliance of organizations in a united effort to fight human crime, and we look forward to contributing as a member of this vital network,” said Velera Vice President of Risk Engagement Nicole Reyes. “Financial crimes and related scams are among the most significant issues our credit unions and their members are facing. Velera is dedicated to doing everything within its power to prevent and combat these crimes, and our new partnership with The Knoble – and the hundreds of other participating financial institutions – will further strengthen our ability to do that.”

The partnership between The Knoble and Velera comes as overall fraud has reached an all-time high. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported losing $10 billion to fraud in 2023, setting a new record and increasing by nearly 15% over 2022.