Citizens Fraud

Overview

Cypress and Oak are internal fraud systems designed to support real-time fraud detection, investigation, and resolution at Citizens Bank.

Cypress is a dispute management platform used by fraud analysts and operations teams to investigate claims, process disputes, and guide resolution workflows often during live customer calls.

Oak is a real-time fraud alert system used by analysts to triage suspicious activity, take action on accounts, and prevent financial loss.

Together, these systems replaced fragmented, manual workflows with integrated, scalable tools reducing claim resolution time, improving accuracy, and strengthening fraud prevention capabilities.

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The Problem

Fraud workflows were fragmented, slow, and error-prone.

Teams relied on:

• Multiple disconnected tools
• Manual processes (spreadsheets, email chains)
• Heavy dependence on mainframe systems for data lookup

This created significant challenges:

• Slow resolution times, delaying customer support and fraud mitigation
• Duplicate work, as information had to be re-entered across systems
• Compliance risks, due to inconsistent workflows and lack of audit visibility
• Increased cognitive load, especially during live customer calls

For fraud alerts, analysts were working in a cumbersome third-party system that limited visibility, slowed decision-making, and made it difficult to take action efficiently.

These inefficiencies increased the risk of:

• Financial loss
• Regulatory exposure
• Poor customer experience

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Constraints & Considerations

Designing Cypress and Oak required balancing usability with strict operational and regulatory constraints:

• Compliance requirements, including audit trails and required investigation steps
• Complex workflows, varying by dispute type, user role, and workbasket assignment
• Real-time decision-making, particularly for alerts and live customer interactions
• Legacy system dependencies, including mainframe data sources
• User variability, supporting both new and experienced analysts

These constraints required designing systems that were both structured and flexible, guiding users while allowing them to handle complex, dynamic scenarios.

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My Role & Ownership

I led the end-to-end design of both Cypress and Oak, owning research, system design, and user experience.

My role included:

• Defining end-to-end workflows for fraud disputes and alert handling
• Designing system structures to support multiple user roles, permissions, and workbasket assignments
• Partnering with product and engineering to shape backend logic and data integration
• Translating compliance requirements into structured, intuitive user experiences
• Designing for real-time use cases, including live customer calls and time-sensitive fraud alerts

This work required close collaboration with cross-functional teams to ensure the system was both operationally effective and technically feasible.

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KEY PRODUCT DECISIONS

1. Consolidating Fragmented Fraud Workflows into a Unified System

Fraud investigation workflows were previously spread across multiple tools, requiring users to switch contexts and manually piece together information.

Decision: Centralize fraud workflows into a single, integrated platform.

I designed Cypress to:

• Integrate data from the mainframe directly into the experience
• Eliminate the need to switch between tools
• Provide a structured, end-to-end workflow for dispute processing

This reduced friction, minimized duplicate work, and improved overall efficiency.

2. Structuring Step-by-Step Workflows for Complex Dispute Types

Fraud disputes vary significantly depending on type, requiring different steps, validations, and approvals.

Decision: Define structured, step-by-step workflows tailored to each dispute type.

I:

• Mapped out workflows for different dispute scenarios
• Designed guided experiences to ensure required steps were completed
• Created clear pathways for both analysts and managers to track and approve disputes

This approach:

• Reduced errors
• Improved compliance adherence
• Increased consistency across the organization

3. Designing for Roles, Permissions, and Workbasket Management

Fraud operations required managing large volumes of cases across teams with different responsibilities.

Decision: Build a flexible system for assigning and tracking work across users and teams.

I designed:

• Role-based permissions to control access to different dispute types
• Workbasket tracking to monitor case distribution and progress
• Manager tools to assign workflows to individuals or groups

This ensured:

• Work was distributed efficiently
• No cases were missed
• Teams could operate at scale

4. Enabling Real-Time Fraud Alert Triage and Action (Oak)

Fraud alerts were previously handled in a third-party system that limited usability and slowed response times.

Decision: Redesign the alert experience to support real-time decision-making.

I designed Oak to:

• Consolidate alert data into a single, actionable view
• Expand visibility into customer and account information
• Enable key actions directly within the workflow (placing holds, splitting holds, viewing history)
• Introduce audit logging to support compliance and traceability

This allowed analysts to:

• Respond faster to suspicious activity
• Take action without leaving the system
• Improve accuracy and confidence in decision-making

5. Designing for Compliance, Auditability, and Risk Reduction

Fraud systems must ensure that every action is traceable and compliant with regulatory requirements.

Decision: Embed compliance directly into the user experience.

I:

• Designed audit logs to track all user actions
• Structured workflows to enforce required steps
• Ensured visibility into decision history and account actions

This reduced risk while maintaining usability, ensuring that compliance requirements were met without adding unnecessary complexity.

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IMPACT

The redesign of fraud workflows through Cypress and Oak resulted in measurable improvements across efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience:

• Reduced claim resolution time from 7–8 days to 4–5 days
• Decreased customer complaints by 11%
• Improved call handling efficiency for live customer interactions
• Reduced errors through structured workflows and system guidance

By replacing fragmented manual processes with integrated systems, this work:

• Reduced operational risk
• Improved compliance adherence
• Enabled teams to process fraud cases more efficiently at scale

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