Case Study: PULSE achieves 40% reduction in fraud losses with FICO Falcon Platform

How PULSE Network took a proactive approach to debit card fraud and reduced losses by 40%

PULSE, a Discover®-owned electronic funds transfer network that processes billions of debit and ATM transactions each year, faced rising and evolving fraud—especially card‑not‑present (CNP) attacks—and needed to replace a retiring detection system with a real‑time, scalable solution that could protect millions of daily transactions while accommodating differing issuer risk tolerances without degrading the cardholder experience.

PULSE implemented the FICO® Falcon® Platform, using AI/ML, a shared intelligence network and subtenancy Case Manager to give issuers tailored rules and visibility. The new platform reduced false positives by 25%, increased fraud dollars blocked by 40% and lifted account detection rates by 50% (with some issuers preventing over $60M in losses), and earned PULSE a 2019 FICO Decisions Award for Fraud and Security.

PULSE

Jim Lerdal

Vice President