The 11 Best Risk Management Software 2023

Exposure to risk is a fact of life for every company, from the smallest sole trader to multinational giants. For the vast majority of organizations, structured risk management is either necessary or recommended in order to minimize losses and boost their potential.

In general terms, everyone agrees that examining and addressing risk is important, and many are putting their money where their mouth is: The risk management market is projected to reach $28.87 billion in value by 2027 – growth of 18.7% over seven years, per Allied Market Research. 

It is quite the umbrella term, though: Risk involves everything from global inflation and geopolitical developments to fraud and scams targeting your company in particular. 

So, how do you choose risk management software and tools? What do you take into account, and which vendors are worth your attention? 

List of the Best Risk Management Software for 2023

• SEON: 360-Degree Protection from Fraud Risk
• Resolver: Analyze and Address Risk in Context
• Signifyd: Great Chargeback Guarantee Option
• BioCatch: Advanced Behavioral Biometrics vs Risk
• Kount: Ideal for Set-and-Forget Functionality
• Fusion Risk Management: Build Operational Resilience
• ThreatMark: Safer Transactions & Signups with Biometry
• TruValidate (Iovation): Homing In on ID Verification Risk
• Cybersource: A Reliable Option by Visa
• ArkOwl: A Robust, Highly Specialized Risk Tool
• Feedzai: Customer Risk Assessment Powerhouse

What Is Risk Management Software?

Risk management software allows an organization to balance risk and reward in its operations, by having a clear view of risks and choosing which frameworks and methodologies are most appropriate to mitigate them – as well as when.

According to the International Standards Organization, the authority behind ISO certifications, risk is defined as “the effect of uncertainty on objectives”. Every business faces risk, and needs to accept and integrate risk. To think otherwise would be unrealistic. 

Efficient risk management starts with choosing which risks are worth introducing into the process, which to mitigate once identified and how, and which to always avoid. And this is done with the help of methodologies, software and tools, including modules and comprehensive platforms.

As an umbrella term, risk management deals with everything from risk of customer-attempted fraud to cybercrime, disruptions, faulty equipment breakdowns, etc. – all subject to a company’s industry and particulars. 

We should also point out that compliance is a key concern adjacent to risk management, and ISO 31000:2018 itself is a risk management standard, providing a framework for managing risk regardless of organization size or sector.

Why Use Risk Management Software?

Any customer-facing website that processes payments, or otherwise falls within regulated verticals, can be targeted by fraud and should strongly consider implementing risk management software. Best-practice risk management should be inclusive of the potential for a company to incur noncompliance fines based on data, money-laundering, and customer safety regulations, and for many companies toeing this line will necessitate a software solution, or outright require one. Even for small companies, risking a breach in data or customer safety, or becoming embroiled in a money-laundering scandal could result in massive punitive action that can capsize even the largest ships.

Pros and Cons of Risk Management Software

The use of risk management software comes with a long list of benefits, mainly to do with minimizing loss and learning from past experience, as well as some shortcomings. Let’s take a closer look.

Risk Management Software Pros

• Advanced manipulation of data: Complex analytical and statistical methods translate big data into simplified, actionable conclusions.
• Proactive risk strategy: Automation of risk management through the use of tools and software allows you to be more proactive, putting in place better defenses not just for prevention but for minimizing impact.
• A culture of transparency: The granular transparency linked to monitoring, recording and auditing risk events helps with accountability and awareness company-wide.
• Faster response: Automating risk management through software enables faster response times and more efficient mitigation overall.
• Improved prioritization: By evaluating and prioritizing risk more accurately, you can choose to funnel your resources accordingly, minimizing loss on several fronts.
• Better organization: As you scale up, risk management software helps make use of swaths of data, centralizing top-level information and providing a better overview of risk operations.
• Metrics and reporting: Actionable figures and reports highlight gaps in defenses and risk strategy, so you can keep up with the risk and threat landscape as you go.

Risk Management Software Cons

• An investment in time: Due to the complicated nature of risk management, this software often takes time to learn. Expect your employees to need training as well as time for self-learning.
• Data security risks: Because risk management software solutions provide top-down views of risk and risk strategies, they collate huge amounts of data which, if leaked, can have a significant impact.
• Significant costs: Deploying risk management solutions can be a costly affair that, depending on the tool, can be forbidding for smaller companies. Factor in upkeep too, as well as training and any subscription costs.

Top Features of Risk Management Software

When choosing a piece of software, the most important features to look for in a risk management system will correspond to your organization’s sector and pain points – as well as your risk appetite. In order to find the most suitable solution, it is essential to be familiar with the specific risks you are susceptible to.

For instance, an ecommerce company will want to mitigate financial risk from fraudulent transactions and chargebacks, and would thus have different priorities over a lender focused on assessing loan applicants as accurately as possible.

The risk management market is full of options that suit companies in different verticals and with different scales. Some features may be more or less important for your needs. To develop the best idea of what solution is right for you, here are features that many organizations find essential for risk mitigation in business operations: 

• Rules-based risk assessment: Risk management systems that use a rules-based scoring system to separate good and malicious users offer more explainability and are more easily adjusted than behavior-based solutions.
• Multi-layered risk management: To counteract the multifarious and ever-changing risk threats in business operations today, risk management systems should have capabilities that can identify risk across any number of channels, while also having solutions for mitigation, manual investigation, and should also facilitate communications and reporting. 
• Customizable risk rules matrix: In order to keep a high level of explainability while also staying versatile in the fight against fraud, customizable risk rules are essential to keep business operations running smoothly. As soon as a new threat emerges, rules should be able to be adjusted to capture them. Similarly, known risks may become higher or lower priorities, so having an easy way to adjust the weights of different risk indicators is essential as risk appetites change. 
• Risk mitigation: A comprehensive risk management system should also have counter-active functions that prevent fraud from taking place after risk is identified. This may be as simple as banning users with high risk scores, or else adding them to a blacklist.
• Real-time data & monitoring: Risk management solutions that assess real-time customer data for risk are less likely to encounter stale information than solutions that reference legacy databases. Additionally, they do a better job of facilitating real-time customer monitoring within a domain, as they can react to customer data as it changes. This way customers that initially seem innocent at onboarding but start to show signs of risk as time goes on can be prevented from malicious activity.
• Machine learning-based automation: To operate at the speed of business, many scaled companies will require a high level of automation to maximize customer bases by minimizing friction, while also cutting down on human resources throughout onboarding and checkout processes. Rules-based risk assessment is facilitated by machine learning algorithms that pick up on more granular risk indicators than humans can typically identify, while also making risk assessment during most customer interactions a fully automated, much faster process.
• Predictive analytics: Machine learning-assisted risk management solutions can also develop insights into customer data based on existing fraud cases. Patterns in data that aren’t necessarily visible to the naked eye can be revealing in terms of how risky users are managing to bypass existing security measures, making them easier to stop in the future.
• Scalable & flexible integration: Any risk management software incorporated into an existing software stack should be able to be implemented with minimal interruptions to daily workflows. Choosing an option that suits scaled or scaling companies, and cooperates with other essential software in the stack is essential.
• Compliance: Depending on the vertical, many companies are required to comply with government regulations concerning privacy and finances. For organizations that fall within mandated perimeters, there are risk management options that offer various forms of AML, CDD, and privacy compliance natively, as well as the ability to develop transparent reports that confirm that compliance.
• Support & ease-of-use: Different risk management solutions offer different levels of customer support that facilitates troubleshooting, risk rule creation, and general user experience. Depending on whether or not your company is scaled to include internal tech solutions, choosing an option that suits your needs will make your risk management software a tool, rather than a chore.

Keeping these in mind will help you identify which areas each piece of software can help with, so you can integrate those that work for your company best.

The Best Risk Management Software in 2023

Without further ado, let’s look at the best risk management software you can get in 2023.

Disclaimer: Everything in this article was gleaned from research, including user reviews. We did not have time to manually test all the tools. This guide was last updated in Q1 2023. Please contact us to request any changes or corrections.

SEON – 360° Protection from Fraud Risk 

The dimension of risk management addressed by SEON’s solutions covers fraud and scam-adjacent risk throughout the risk assessment and mitigation process. At the center of this is the unique ability the software has to create real-time profiles of each customer using 50+ sources of intel, including social media and digital platforms – in addition to hundreds more data points.

In terms of the monitoring and identification of risks, the SEON search engine utilizes transparent, whitebox AI technology to trawl through historical fraud and risk events for each company and generate a list of rule suggestions – in addition to standard, industry-specific, and custom risk rules.

The result is different for each individual company and can be further adjusted and adapted at will, simplifying the process for many. Thanks to the easy-to-use Admin Panel, SEON customers can easily set the platform to the level of risk they feel comfortable with, from set-and-forget best practices that are tried and tested in their sector to granular reporting and detailed risk scoring.

Meanwhile, the end-to-end platform continuously monitors operations for suspicious users and transactions, applying the aforementioned and/or other rulesets to either flag or block risks, per the organizational strategy.

SEON Pros

• Fully featured vs fraud: The technology powering this under the hood includes unique digital footprinting, comprehensive device fingerprinting, IP analysis modules, velocity searches and machine learning. 
• Dynamic friction: SEON’s products can help identify and manage the risk of fraud, scams, account takeover and chargebacks across a spectrum of industries, employing dynamic friction methods that protect the customer journey from churn.

SEON Cons

• Focus on online fraud: At present, the type of risk SEON can help against is the risk of fraud, scams, account takeover and chargebacks. There is no IDV, for example, or management of offline risks.

SEON Pricing

• Pay per API call, with $299/month minimum charge. Available is a free demo, as well as a 14-day trial with no strings attached.

Choose SEON If:

• Customer experience is important to you, but you don’t want to compromise safety.

Resolver – Analyze and Address Risk in Context

A company acquired by business services behemoth Kroll in 2022, Resolver focuses on making the best possible use of your risk data to put it in context, analyze, prioritize and address it.

This Canadian company boasts among its customers Toyota, Johnson & Johnson and Starbucks. Solutions focus on risk and audit (including internal audits), compliance and regulatory change management, investigations, and general security operations.

The Resolver workflow starts with the collection of risk data, with the software then identifying links and patterns and presenting a wealth of reports on the business value of every risk.

Resolver Pros

• Customizability: Users appreciate the customizability of the interface and reports, as they can tailor it to their organization’s needs.
• All-in-one: The solution is comprehensive, and everything is stored within the Resolver platform, for easier, compliant data governance.   

Resolver Cons

• No fraud prevention: Unlike some other tools on this list, Resolver does not focus on cybersecurity or fraud.

Resolver Pricing

• Unfortunately, this information is not available to the public. Speak to the Resolver team.

Choose Resolver If:

• You’re looking for a complete risk management solution and have several compliance needs.

Signifyd – Great Chargeback Guarantee Option

As a vendor, California-based Signifyd primarily serves the ecommerce sector, promising to deliver revenue protection, abuse prevention and payment compliance. As such, there are various ways in which Signifyd identifies and mitigates risk for merchants, inclusive of account protection, prevention of fraud, and stopping fraudsters and scammers from harming the company and its customers.

Signifyd monitors risks in real-time through its console, also allowing for automation at scale. This means merchants need not be involved in day-to-day fraud fighting, and sacrifices control for convenience.

Naturally, it can be a good option for some yet not ideal for others. This vendor’s solutions also integrate well with popular ecommerce management platforms.

Signifyd offers a chargeback guarantee model. This means that the brand will pay out of pocket for any fraudulent chargeback requests that slip through the net, thus doing away with the pain point of chargebacks – at least on paper. It’s important to note that this model generally leads to more false positives, and can thus drive customers away compared to friction-free strategies.

Signifyd Pros

• Big data: The vendor leverages big data to prevent abuse, block attempts at hacking into customer accounts, and protect from fraud.
• Caters to PSPs: Signifyd boasts a purpose-built solution for payment service providers that includes SCA exemption management and transaction risk analysis.

Signifyd Cons

• Chargeback guarantee model: A big pull for online merchants is the chargeback guarantee it provides, but this can incentivize the solution to err on the side of caution, potentially resulting in more false positives than without such a guarantee.

Signifyd Pricing

• No pricing information available at the time.

Choose Signifyd If:

• Chargeback guarantee suits your business model and operational volume.

BioCatch – Advanced Behavioral Biometrics vs Risk

Boston-based company BioCatch proposes advanced biometrics and behavior analysis to minimize risk and prevent fraud – and has been doing so for over a decade, since its 2011 beginnings.

It is certainly no understatement to label BioCatch as pioneering, considering it holds over 60 biometrics patents, in part owing to its founder’s prior involvement in cyberwarfare and military operations. The BioCatch strategy focuses almost exclusively on behavior analysis, yet does it so well that it is a valuable addition to the product stacks of high-risk enterprises. 

The software analyzes disparate elements before it scores the risk according to 20 key signals that help distinguish good from bad users in order to protect your operations.

BioCatch Pros

• Behavior analysis: Behavioral biometrics, cognitive analysis, and behavioral insights examined include haptics such as press size, typing cadence, abnormal interactions, hesitation, etc. As a result, it is able to compare someone’s behavior to what is expected of the average user as well as this particular customer’s past actions, flagging suspicious behavior.
• Several touchpoints: Works at different touchpoints including account opening, PSD2 SCA, sign-in, etc.

BioCatch Cons

• Primarily for enterprise: BioCatch markets itself primarily to enterprises and as a result is more suited to their needs – as well as their spending potential.

BioCatch Pricing

• Specific information on BioCatch pricing is not available at this time without speaking to the sales team.

Choose BioCatch If:

• You want to leverage biometrics to benefit from behavioral analysis for risk prevention.

Kount – Ideal for Set-and-Forget Functionality

Once a startup, Kount now belongs to the product roster of consumer credit powerhouse Equifax, after a February 2021 acquisition. Kount’s Identity Trust Global Network has been built over 13 years of activity and includes 32+ billion interactions per year from across 250 countries and dozens of payment processors and card networks. 

Tailoring its AI-powered end-to-end fraud risk offering to the retail sector, this brand has been met with great success since its 2006 establishment and is ideally suited for large enterprises that process card not present transactions both offline and online. There is also a separate solution for payment providers.

Types of risk Kount helps prevent in real-time include digital fraud, policy abuse, and account takeovers, while the consequences of risky behavior are also dealt with through extra functionality related to customer disputes.

Kount Pros

• Automated solution: Kount Command is an automated solution best suited to those organizations who prefer a set-and-forget approach where decisions are made automatically in the background by unsupervised machine learning modules.
• Dispute management: Conveniently for online merchants, Kount provides chargeback, refund and dispute management assistance.

Kount Cons

• Blackbox risk management: Companies that would like to know why certain decisions are being reached, as well as fine-tune their processes, will be best served elsewhere.

Kount Pricing

• Kount pricing is available as a custom quote for your business via the official website. 

Choose Kount If:

• You’re a large-sized company whose pain points are related to card not present payments.

Fusion Risk Management: Build Operational Resilience

Out of its Chicago offices, Fusion Risk Management is a respected name in identifying, assessing and managing risk that has amassed awards and positive ratings. Manufacturing, data service providers as well as banks and adjacent organizations are the key sectors it targets.

Among this risk management vendor’s customers are BOX, Boston Scientific and Finastra. Key areas addressed by Fusion include operational resilience, third-party risk management, business continuity and disaster recovery, IT and security risk management, and crisis and incident management.

One of its biggest assets is the prebuilt connectors that allow one to source data “from anywhere”. This speeds up deployment, allows for smoother updates and expansion, and provides a more complete picture of risk as the company grows.

Fusion Risk Management Pros

• ENGAGE Community: Available are seminars, forums, online learnings and hands-on support to help Fusion customers utilize the platform’s vast potential.
• Ease of use: The Fusion platform is built on the Salesforce Lightning Platform, which allows for cloud access from any device and full compatibility.

Fusion Risk Management Cons

• No compliance: At present, there is no focus on compliance and related risks for this solution, though its competitors across fraud risk and risk reporting often address this area.

Fusion Risk Management Pricing

• You can only get pricing information by speaking to the sales team. However, there are no setup costs.

Choose Fusion Risk Management If:

• You’re looking for an intuitive way to utilize your data to enable business continuity.

ThreatMark: Safer Transactions & Signups with Biometry

Founded in 2015 and with offices in the Czech Republic and the USA, this startup offers transaction and fraud risk detection and analysis, inclusive of risk-based SCA. The vendor has so far received funding from Rockaway Capital, Springtide Ventures and EASME. 

There are two solutions that address certain types of risk: The Anti-Fraud Suite (AFS), catering to banks, and ThreatMark Clair, created specifically to address the risks associated with onboarding and account opening.

Behind the scenes, the technology employed involves behavioral biometry, actionable heuristics, device fingerprinting, and deep analysis using whitebox scoring models.  

Credit risk, transaction risk and KYC compliance are the main areas ThreatMark can address, promising to minimize fraud inclusive of human error stemming from social engineering, phishing and zero-day attacks. 

ThreatMark Pros

• Banking expertise: AFS is tailored to the banking sector, covering KYC, fraud prevention and transaction scoring for online and mobile banking, as well as business banking and API-based open banking. 
• Whitebox AI: Because ThreatMark is a whitebox solution, customers can know exactly how and why decisions can be reached, which is immensely helpful in both supporting customers and adjusting risk.

ThreatMark Cons

• No free trial: Though a demo is available, ThreatMark offers no free trial to potential customers, which is a convenient way to decide if a solution is for you.

ThreatMark Pricing

• Unfortunately, ThreatMark has not made public the pricing for AFS. Clair plans start from $250/month or $0.1/loan.

Choose ThreatMark If:

• Your needs are related to credit risk and KYC compliance, including onboarding and account opening.

TruValidate (Iovation) – Homing In on ID Verification Risk

Iovation has been a popular name in the fraud fighting world for customers in the iGaming sector. In 2018, it was acquired by TransUnion and rebranded – now serving customers using the moniker TruValidate. Part of TransUnion’s suite of products, TruValidate can help its clients deal with risk through additional solutions – for example, those linked to credit risk and customer experience.

TruValidate focuses on mitigating compliance and risk linked to KYC and CDD, identity verification, and fraud at large. To do so, it employs IP analysis, behavior tracking, device fingerprinting, and more industry staples. There is also strong document verification using facial recognition. 

Part of TransUnion’s suite of products, TruValidate can help its clients deal with risk through additional solutions – for example, those linked to customer experience.

TruValidate Pros

• Compliance partner: Addresses fraud and ID scams, but also allows for compliance risk mitigation by satisfying KYC, AML and other mandates.
• Long history of fighting risk: Founded in 2004 and eventually bought by TransUnion, this vendor boasts extensive industry experience.

TruValidate Cons

• Less-than-ideal risk stack integration: As tends to happen with this type of company structure, integration is exceptional with affiliated products but there have been reports of issues when deployed alongside other vendors’ products.

TruValidate Pricing

• TruValidate pricing information is currently not available to the public.

Choose TruValidate If:

• You’re in iGaming and want to work with a recognized name in fraud prevention and compliance.

Cybersource – A Reliable Option by Visa

Cybersource was originally founded all the way back in 1994, as an online payment platform and fraud management solution – indeed, one of the pioneers of such services. The company was acquired by Visa in 2010, allowing it to utilize the data pool provided by all 141 billion VisaNet historical transactions. 

Cybersouce’s risk management offering is Decision Manager, a machine-learning-based risk-measuring software. With a focus on automation, Decision Manager runs incoming traffic through risk rules and constantly updates to optimize the success rate. 

As expected with the backing of the Visa company, Cybersource is able to leverage massive amounts of transactional data and processing power in its risk management solution.

Alongside the fraud mitigation capabilities, Cybersource’s payment security module can reduce exposure to risk by making your customer data harder to attack.

Solutions for safe payment acceptance reference these same databases, and there are modules for omnichannel management and a proprietary 3-D Secure application to minimize noncompliance risk. 

Cybersource Pros

• Fast scoring: The software employs multiple machine learning algorithms, choosing the best one for each transaction and then returning a score in less than 1 second.
• Access to huge databases: Integrating Cybersource into a security stack means the risk rules are informed by over 141 billion transactions, and are customized to the customer’s particular vertical.

Cybersource Cons

• Dated UI: Some reviewers have mentioned their dislike of the user interface of this solution, which they found to be on the unattractive side.

Cybersource Pricing

• Not currently published online, but has specialized structures for medium-sized businesses as well as enterprise.

Choose Cybersource If:

• You want to collaborate closely with Visa on risk management that focuses on payments.

ArkOwl – A Robust, Highly Specialized Risk Tool

Based in the Great Lakes region, ArkOwl was founded in 2012 by Rob Daline to do just one thing, but exceptionally well. 

ArkOwl’s primary focus is email and phone verification and additional enrichment. As the software does not utilize blackbox algorithms or mathematical suggestions, all of its inferences are fully explainable. In turn, these findings can be fed into other software for automated decisioning.

ArkOwl takes privacy very seriously. As the product starts with a data point – email address or phone number – and enriches it with information from specific secure outside databases, no customer data is ever stored by the company, so it can’t be leaked. At the time of requests, the data also goes through an anonymization process so any vulnerabilities in those databases can’t lead back to your customers. 

ArkOwl Pros

• Real-time data enrichment: All lookups conducted by the software reference real-time data, so there is no chance of stale information on incoming traffic, while it can deliver results in large batch queries.
• Anonymous and secure: One of ArkOwl’s primary concerns is keeping user data secure, minimizing risk exposure by making your reputation less likely to be damaged in the event of a data breach.

ArkOwl Cons

• Very narrow focus: ArkOwl is not a standalone risk management tool but can boost the efficacy of an existing risk analysis stack by providing reliable, insightful email and phone number verification and analysis.

ArkOwl Pricing

• Though it does not publish specifics online, the website does list flexible pricing plans designed for a range of customer budgets.

Choose ArkOwl If:

• You want to complement your risk stack with real-time data points starting with an email address.

Feedzai – Customer Risk Assessment Powerhouse

With headquarters in both Portugal and Silicon Valley and now in its round D funding stage, Feedzai has a reputation for strong risk management capabilities. Its customers include four out of the five largest banks in North America, with Citibank being one of the largest – as well as one of Feedzai’s backers. 

The company’s powerful risk management tool, RiskOps is a platform combining every layer of customer risk assessment, from onboarding screening to hardened KYC. The RiskOps suite has modules for seemingly every potential application within ecommerce and fintech risk management, including for identity verification, account opening, account takeovers, AML, KYC/CDD, transaction fraud, and watchlist screening.

Each customer is assigned a trust rating that updates itself dynamically as they interact more with the service. This way, anomalous behavior that might indicate an account takeover can be scanned for at every data point, then flagged for review.

Feedzai Pros

• Visual link analysis: Genome by Feedzai gives fraud analysts and managers a quicker, more efficient way to visualize results that has been lauded by industry insiders.
• AML screening: As it caters to banking, Feedzai can check sanctions lists, PEP lists, and other key sources to satisfy its customers’ anti-money laundering compliance obligations.

Feedzai Cons

• Steep learning curve: The sheer level of detail in Feedzai can be daunting to more junior fraud analysts, while even experienced professionals will have to dedicate time to learn it.

Feedzai Pricing

• Feedzai does not currently list its pricing structure online, so you’ll have to contact its sales team for a quote.

Choose Feedzai If:

• You’re in financial services and have a sizeable team of experienced fraud managers.

Selecting Risk Management Software

As it happens, there is no perfect risk management software that will fit every single company’s requirements and preferences. 

We’ve already noted above that it largely depends on the size and type of your business, as well as your risk appetite and overall risk landscape in your sector. 

However, to get you started, we would advise you to use any tools or information you already have at your disposal to identify and assess risk as best as you can, including doing risk matrix analysis.

From there, you can begin to consider which of the above or other risk management tools will satisfy the criteria that you have defined. Hopefully, the suggestions we’ve provided will be a good starting point.

FAQ

Sources

• PR Newswire: Risk Management Market to Garner $28.87 Bn, Globally, by 2027 at 18.7% CAGR: Allied Market Research