When a fintech processes over $40 billion in payments annually in a volatile market like Lebanon, a single fraudulent transaction can erode trust in an instant. That is why Whish Money, a regional digital payments powerhouse, is turning to Visa’s artificial intelligence to stop scams before the money even moves.
Whish Money, a leading fintech, announced today that it is partnering with Visa to deploy Featurespace — Visa’s AI-powered fraud prevention solution — across its multiple payment channels in Lebanon. The collaboration aims to strengthen the company’s ability to detect scams and suspicious activity in real time.
Fraud does not always happen in a single, obvious moment. It can stretch across several transactions, different channels, and multiple customer touchpoints. That is why a broader, more holistic view of activity is essential when gauging risk. Featurespace uses what Visa calls Adaptive Behavioral Analytics to analyze both customer behavior and interactions across payment channels as they happen. By merging transaction history with behavioral data, the technology produces risk scores and automated decisions designed to flag unusual patterns and potentially fraudulent transactions.
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Whish Money, which serves more than 2.5 million users from offices in Beirut, Washington, Montreal, London and Dubai, will roll out these capabilities across its entire payments ecosystem. The company processes more than $40 billion in payments annually, and deploying Featurespace is part of its strategy to keep fraud management as robust as its growth.
“Protecting our customers starts before money moves,” said Jad Koussa, CEO of Whish Money. “As we grow, we need technology that can keep pace with how our customers use our services and how fraud is evolving. By deploying Featurespace, we can strengthen how we identify suspicious activity across our payment channels and make more informed risk decisions, helping our customers send, pay and receive money with greater confidence.”
Walter Lironi, Head of Value-Added Services for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) at Visa, added: “Managing fraud increasingly requires a view that extends beyond an individual transaction. Featurespace expands the fraud prevention capabilities Visa can bring to clients by combining behavioral analytics and real-time risk scoring and decisioning with our network-level risk capabilities. This can help clients like Whish Money better understand activity across different channels and make more informed risk decisions as fraud continues to evolve.”
About Whish Money:
Whish Money is a leading fintech with offices in Beirut, Washington, Montreal, London and Dubai, serving more than 2.5 million users. Its diverse portfolio of digital financial services includes versatile payment solutions, secure remittances, Visa cards, and comprehensive merchant tools tailored for both businesses and individuals. Built on trust, proven technology and a strong partner network, Whish Money enables money to flow seamlessly across borders. Learn more at Whish.money.
About Visa:
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.
Karl El Hage
Whish Money
Why it matters: For millions of users in Lebanon — a country grappling with economic instability and limited banking infrastructure — this deployment means more than just faster payments. It signals that fintechs can still invest in cutting-edge security even in challenging markets, setting a new baseline for trust in digital finance across the region.
