IBM has published an official customer reference recognizing the collaboration between BORICA AD, Bulgaria's national payment switch operator, and IBS in implementing IBM Safer Payments — a real-time, AI-driven fraud prevention platform now protecting the country's core payment infrastructure.

The project

BORICA required a modern fraud prevention system capable of replacing legacy batch-based processes with real-time detection at national scale. But this was not just about protecting BORICA's own operations. The goal was more ambitious — to build a centralized, multitenant platform that would enable BORICA to offer fraud prevention as a service to its entire ecosystem of banks, payment service providers and card acquirers.

IBS led the integration of IBM Safer Payments within BORICA's existing payment workflows. The platform needed to handle over 4,000 transactions per second with millisecond latency, serving more than 16 financial institutions on a single shared infrastructure.

What we delivered

IBS provided end-to-end integration and application modernization services to ensure IBM Safer Payments operated within BORICA's production environment without disruption. The implementation was completed in a short timeline that reflects both the maturity of our delivery methodology and our deep understanding of payment infrastructure.

The result goes beyond fraud detection. By deploying IBM Safer Payments as a shared national platform, BORICA now operates a fraud-as-a-service model — providing its clients with behavioral, risk-driven fraud monitoring powered by one of the most advanced risk engines in the industry without each institution having to build and maintain its own capabilities. This levels the playing field, giving smaller banks and payment providers access to the same caliber of protection as larger institutions.

The platform currently protects over 70% of domestic card transactions in real time. But cards were only the beginning. BORICA has already extended the service to cover digital channels and compliance controls, including AML and financial crime prevention, with the first tenants actively using these capabilities in production.

What comes next

The next milestone is Blink — Bulgaria's instant payment scheme, also operated by BORICA. Extending IBM Safer Payments to protect Blink will complete the coverage across all major payment rails in the country, making BORICA's fraud-as-a-service platform one of the most comprehensive national-scale fraud prevention infrastructures in the region.

This positions BORICA not only as the operator of Bulgaria's payment infrastructure, but as a national-scale provider of fraud and financial crime prevention services — a significant expansion of its value proposition to the financial sector.

"We did not just deploy a fraud detection system. We helped BORICA build a new service capability — one that now covers cards, digital channels and compliance, with instant payments next in line," said Goran Angelov, CEO of IBS. "When your implementation partner understands both the technology and the business, the result is not just a project delivery — it is a platform for growth."

The full IBM reference story is available here: [link]