IBM has acquired German payment fraud analytics company IRIS Analytics.

Founded in 2007, IRIS Analytics delivers technology and consultancy services to the payments industry to help fight electronic payment fraud.

IRIS offers a real-time fraud analytics engine that uses machine learning to generate rapid anti-fraud models. It also supports the creation and modification of ad-hoc models on several sized payment platforms.

Several banks and payment processors across the world use IRIS technology. French payment clearing vendor STET depends on the IRIS platform to screen 5.5 billion debit and credit card purchases annually.

IBM will integrate IRIS Analytics with its counter fraud technology to help organisations more accurately detect fraud and help them respond rapidly by lowering the number of false positives that should be investigated.

IRIS Analytics CEO Constantin von Altrock said: "As the payments industry evolves with new payments methods such as chip and PIN, mobile payments and immediate payments, the ability for financial institutions to accurately make decisions about what is suspicious and what is legitimate before the payment is executed is required.

"The combination of IRIS technology with IBM’s Counter Fraud capabilities creates a comprehensive solution for real time payment fraud prevention."

A recent study by IBM has found that banks typically take more than four weeks to deploy counter-measures after detecting fraud. IRIS’ advanced machine learning helps clients adapt and react against sophisticated attacks.