Moving Beyond Spreadsheets: Scaling Fraud Prevention for a High-Growth Neobank
As Lili prepared for its Series A and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, the fraud team was trapped in a cycle of manual administration. Relying on off-the-shelf dashboards and complex Excel spreadsheets, analysts spent their days painstakingly entering alert data and building pivot tables. This "paper-pushing" workflow left zero room for strategic fraud prevention, resulting in high false-positive rates and an inability to keep pace with a customer base that was rapidly climbing toward 200,000 users. Lili needed a way to transition from reactive data entry to proactive, analytical fraud fighting.
- Manual Bottlenecks: Fraud teams were bogged down by Excel-based alert tracking and manual data entry.
- Ineffective Tooling: Off-the-shelf dashboards required constant manual tweaking and produced high false-positives.
- Scalability Gap: Existing processes couldn't support Lili’s rapid growth or the requirements of the AML Act of 2020.
- Strategic Drain: High-talent analysts were spending time on administrative tasks instead of hunting fraudsters.
A Data-Agnostic, No-Code Platform for Agile Fraud Operations
Lili chose Unit21 because it offered a data-agnostic infrastructure that bypassed the typical months-long integration cycles of other vendors. The platform’s no-code environment was a game-changer, allowing the non-technical operations team to set, test, and deploy their own business rules without waiting for engineering or SQL resources. Unit21 provided a unified toolset for Transaction Monitoring and Case Management that was built for speed—Lili was able to run historical data tests within a single day of installation and went live six months faster than they would have with any other solution.
- Rapid Integration: Data-agnostic architecture allowed Lili to get up and running 6 months faster than competitors.
- Empowered Ops Teams: No-code rules engine lets fraud analysts deploy logic without needing SQL or engineering support.
- High Customizability: A flexible system that evolves alongside Lili’s business needs as they scale.
- Instant Feedback Loop: A simple UI and responsive support team ensured a seamless transition from legacy tools.
“Unit21's no-code solutions are upskilling our analysts to execute tasks that would otherwise need an engineer or data scientist. I don't need you to write SQL; I need you to understand the business and be inside the mind of the fraudster.”
Upskilling the FIU: Cutting Investigation Times by 75% While Slashing Fraud Loss
The impact of Unit21 was immediate and measurable, starting with a 50% reduction in fraud loss and a staggering 75% decrease in investigation time. In the first quarter alone, Lili used the platform to identify over $400,000 in fraudulent activity that would have otherwise gone undetected. Beyond the numbers, the platform upskilled the entire fraud team; analysts who were once "paper-pushers" are now creative fraud strategists focused on high-level analytics. By automating the "muscle" of investigations, Lili has boosted team morale and improved the customer experience by blocking fraud faster and more accurately.
- Massive ROI: Captured $400k+ in fraudulent activity during the first three months of deployment.
- Dramatic Efficiency: Investigation times plummeted by 75%, allowing the team to handle higher volumes with less drag.
- Strategic Workforce: Shifted hiring focus from SQL experts to creative analysts who understand fraudster psychology.
- Growth Enabler: Empowered the team to adapt to new fraud typologies in minutes, supporting Lili's continued expansion.
"When rules are capturing fraud fast, you're creating a good impact for your customers. We're able to empower our fraud team so they feel more confident and creative. They aren't manually looking for alerts and can push the limits of their capabilities.”