Enables proactive merchant risk detection and fraud prevention using real-time intelligence and workflows

Persistent Systems, a global Digital Engineering and Enterprise Modernization leader, announced the launch of its Merchant Risk Management and Fraud Detection solution powered by Databricks Data Intelligence platform. The solution helps financial institutions reduce fraud losses, improve detection accuracy and lower manual review effort through real-time, intelligence-driven decisions.

As digital payments scale, financial institutions, payment service providers, digital platforms and their end customers face rising fraud, regulatory scrutiny and reputational risk. Traditional approaches rely on static rules and post-transaction analysis, limiting early detection. Persistent shifts merchant risk management upstream to enable early detection, continuous monitoring and AI-driven action before losses occur.

Built on the Databricks Data Intelligence platform, the solution uses Agentic AI to perform multi-signal merchant vetting during onboarding, analyzing business profiles, compliance history, transaction patterns and external indicators to assess risk before transactions begin. Once live, it continuously monitors transactions, chargebacks and third-party signals in real time to detect emerging fraud or compliance risks.

When risk signals are detected, the system triggers configurable actions, such as enhanced monitoring, watch listing or transaction restrictions with full auditability and governance. Designed as a Databricks accelerator, it unifies batch and streaming data, merchant profiles and external risk signals into a governed, real-time intelligence layer, enabling faster time-to-value.

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The solution is expected to deliver measurable business impact, including:

• 20–40% reduction in chargeback and fraud losses through earlier risk detection
• 30–60% improvement in fraud detection accuracy using multi-signal intelligence
• 50–70% reduction in manual review effort, freeing teams for higher-value investigations
• 10–20% reduction in risk management costs through automation and streamlined workflows

Persistent is a Databricks Global Systems Integrator partner with 900+ Databricks certified professionals and more than eight accelerators on the Databricks platform. The solution is available now and can be deployed as a Databricks-based accelerator for banks, acquirers and payment service providers globally.

Barath Narayanan, Global BFSI and Europe Geo Head, Persistent:
“Merchant risk has become one of the most complex challenges for financial institutions, payment service providers and digital platforms as transaction volumes grow and regulatory scrutiny intensifies. Effective risk management now depends on the ability to transform data into intelligence and respond in real time. Our work with Databricks enables us to combine scalable data processing with AI to help financial institutions identify emerging risk earlier, improve decision making and strengthen merchant oversight across the entire lifecycle.”

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Josh Meyer, Global Head of Partner Solutions and Industry GTM, Databricks:
“As payment ecosystems grow and regulatory scrutiny increases, merchant risk management is becoming an intelligence-driven challenge. Databricks, together with Persistent, helps financial institutions, payment providers, and digital platforms unify data at scale to gain real-time visibility across the merchant lifecycle. This approach enables earlier risk detection, sharper decision-making, and stronger, more resilient compliance in a rapidly evolving payments landscape.”