Application of Deep Generative Models for Anomaly Detection in Complex Financial Transactions

Abstract

This study proposes an algorithm for detecting suspicious behaviors in large payment flows based on deep generative models. By combining Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) and Variational Autoencoders (VAE), the algorithm is designed to detect abnormal behaviors in financial transactions. First, the GAN is used to generate simulated data that approximates normal payment flows. The discriminator identifies anomalous patterns in transactions, enabling the detection of potential fraud and money laundering behaviors. Second, a VAE is introduced to model the latent distribution of payment flows, ensuring that the generated data more closely resembles real transaction features, thus improving the model's detection accuracy. The method optimizes the generative capabilities of both GAN and VAE, ensuring that the model can effectively capture suspicious behaviors even in sparse data conditions. Experimental results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms traditional machine learning algorithms and other deep learning models across various evaluation metrics, especially in detecting rare fraudulent behaviors. Furthermore, this study provides a detailed comparison of performance in recognizing different transaction patterns (such as normal, money laundering, and fraud) in large payment flows, validating the advantages of generative models in handling complex financial data.