QKS Group names Cleafy a Leader in 2026 Enterprise Fraud Management SPARK Matrix

What QKS Group evaluated

The SPARK Matrix™ assesses enterprise fraud management providers across two dimensions: Technology Excellence and Customer Impact. QKS Group defines Enterprise Fraud Management as the technologies and operational processes used to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to fraud across customer interactions and transactions.

According to QKS Group, digital fraud increasingly combines compromised devices, malicious software, manipulated sessions, and payment activity. Effective programs therefore need to connect cyber and financial signals, apply timely risk controls, and give investigators auditable evidence. The evaluation goes beyond transaction scoring to cover detection coverage, explainability, investigation workflows, deployment, and measurable customer impact.

The study also includes an analysis of global market dynamics, major trends, the vendor landscape, and competitive positioning, along with a ranking of providers in the form of the SPARK Matrix™.

Why Cleafy stood out

QKS Group says Cleafy's differentiation lies in its cyber-origin view of financial fraud. Its Fraud xDR approach turns device, application, network, malware, behavioural, and transaction signals into structured, connected evidence across digital banking journeys.

Anandh Ramaswamy, Practice Director at QKS Group, said fraud "increasingly begins as a cyberattack, well before a payment is initiated." He said Cleafy's deterministic micro-models and Attack Pattern Reconstruction help banks recognize account takeover, remote-access abuse, and payment scams earlier, with clear reasons for intervention rather than an isolated risk score.

Divya Baranawal, Vice President and Principal Analyst at QKS Group, highlighted three components. Cleafy LABS contributes specialist threat research and intelligence. Fraud xDR connects evidence across the digital journey. Cleafy Nyx autonomously hunts for emerging threats and connects activity across sessions, accounts and devices, with recommended responses subject to institutional oversight.

QKS Group says the architecture is especially relevant to banks prioritizing account takeover, banking malware, remote-access fraud, and authorized push payment scams.

Caveats for buyers

The analysts attached several conditions. Ramaswamy advised buyers to assess Cleafy as an attack-focused complement to their broader fraud controls, particularly where visibility before the transaction is a priority. Baranawal noted the importance of validating channel coverage, integration requirements, and local service readiness against each institution's operating environment. QKS Group also says buyers should validate fit with existing payment controls, required channels, and governance arrangements.

Cleafy's response and what it means for banks

Michael Morris, Product Director at Cleafy, said the company brought "the discipline of cybersecurity into fraud prevention to recognise attacks before they become fraudulent transactions." He said Cleafy is taking that further with Nyx through Autonomous Fraud Operations, which he described as continuously hunting for emerging threats and giving banks evidence to act earlier.

Cleafy says European banks have been running its Autonomous Fraud Operations since December 2025, allowing fraud teams to prevent more fraud losses while focusing human expertise where it adds the greatest value. That is the company's own claim.

For banks with substantial digital banking activity, QKS Group says this cyber-fraud convergence can strengthen prevention while supporting more proportionate customer interventions. The report positions the approach as one to weigh alongside existing controls, not as a replacement for them.