Role Perceptual Augmented Temporal Graph Network for Related-party Transaction Detection

Illegal related-party transactions (RPT) are federal felonies that pose a severe threat to the stability and integrity of modern financial systems. The increasing frequency of RPTs forms complex and dynamic networks. Existing temporal graph learning methods tend to treat entities as functionally homogeneous, ignoring the diverse and evolving structural roles of nodes. Role-based embedding methods model global structure by bridging same-role nodes, but their reliance on a unified mechanism for aggregation and evolution means they fail to distinguish the underlying logic of distinct interactions governed by structural roles. The limitations motivate us to develop a customized role-based strategy. It can also adapt to evolving RPT dynamics, thereby forming a continuous regulatory process to combat illegal activities. In this paper, we propose an innovative Role Perceptual Augmented Temporal Graph Network (RPATGN) for proactive RPT detection. We analyze the structural roles of nodes and employ a role-based message passing mechanism that adapts its aggregation strategy based on the roles of interacting nodes. We integrate a variational graph recurrent neural network, enhanced by temporal contextual attention, to explicitly model the dynamics of the roles and the overall network evolution. Extensive experiments on real-world financial datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for RPT detection. It holds practical significance for fostering robust financial systems and promoting healthy, transparent financial markets.