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Equifax Inc. early Friday launched an application to identify synthetic identity fraud. The app, known as Synthetic Identity Risk, uses artificial intelligence to analyze identity data, credit histories, and behavioral signals to determine whether an account belongs to a synthetic identity.
Synthetic identities, which criminals use to open credit card accounts or obtain loans, are helping fuel fraud as they are more difficult to detect. The difficulty in detecting synthetic identities stems from the fact that the accountholder’s identity was crafted using pieces of information that belong to multiple legitimate consumers, as opposed to a single consumer whose identity has been stolen.
As a result, synthetic identities can go undetected for long periods, leaving lenders exposed to substantial chargeoffs and revenue loss, Equifax says. The average cost, or charged-off loss, per known synthetic identity is $13,000 as of December 2025, according to Equifax.
“Synthetic identity fraud is a rapidly growing threat impacting the consumer lending ecosystem,” Felipe Castillo, chief product officer for U.S. Information Solutions at Equifax, says in a statement. “With Synthetic Identity Risk, Equifax strengthens lenders’ fraud defenses, helping them to uncover hidden risks and ultimately shift from reactive loss recovery to proactive prevention. In doing so, they not only reduce their financial losses but they safeguard and build long-term trust with their legitimate customers.”
The financial-services industry is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to detect fraud and money laundering and improve risk management, according to Nvidia Corp.’s annual “State of AI in Financial Services” report. Businesses are also using AI to streamline back-office functions, such as customer service. A Santa Clara, Calif.-based technology company, Nvidia provides hardware and software for AI factories and data centers to enable large language models, autonomous vehicles, and scientific computing.
Among the report’s findings is that 65% of respondents say their company is actively using AI, up from 45% a year ago, and 89% of respondents say AI is helping increase revenue and decrease costs. In addition, 73% of respondents say AI is crucial to their future success, and nearly 100% say their AI budgets will increase or stay the same in the next year.
Nvidia surveyed more than 800 industry professionals for the report.
