Below are interesting stories the Banking.com staff has been reading over the past week. What have you been reading? Let us know in the comments section below or Tweet @bankingdotcom.
- The Buzz at Finovate: New Security Tech
Security has taken on increased importance this year in light of recent data breaches that have put millions of dollars on the line and the ongoing threat of distributed denial of service attacks. Reflecting this industry-wide sense of alarm, at this week’s FinovateSpring there were several startups focused solely on providing authentication to bank customers. “Information security has always been a space with a ton of vendors, both small and large,” says Jacob Jegher, a Celent senior analyst. “[But] it’s great to see increased emphasis on security at Finovate.” He says it’s time for the banking industry to “up the ante with regards to authentication, identity management, and overall fraud prevention.”
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- Study Shows Widespread Ignorance on Credit Scores
A large percentage of Americans know little about their scores, a new survey found. The survey shows widespread misunderstanding about how scores are calculated and how they can be improved. Between one-quarter and two-fifths of adults can’t answer basic questions about their scores, according to the survey released Monday by the Consumer Federation of America and VantageScore Solutions. Two-fifths of respondents did not know that credit card issuers and mortgage lenders use scores to make decisions about credit availability and pricing, the survey found.
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- The Next Wave of Mobile Banking
In the U.S market today, retail banks offer a standardized mobile banking application. This provides the convenience and ease of banking for the “on the go” customer. In general, mobile banking is an expanding market and has changed the way customers manage their funds. However, it is arguable that the user experience of each of the retail banks applications is similar.
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- Banking security and five essential layers
There have been significant changes in the threat landscape for online banking. In order to protect customers using Internet-based products and services, such as applications, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FIEC) and other regulators have instituted significantly more stringent requirements for financial institutions. Ensuring a compliant security program requires the execution of a good, multi-faceted authentication solution.
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- 5 Things You Don’t Know Because You Weren’t at Finovate
FIS Wants To Be Your Mobile Main Man. The Jacksonville, Fla., tech behemoth may not have a rep for cutting edge tech, but Doug Brown, a vice president, was at Finovate with authentic tech hipster Chris Gardner – presently CEO of Paydiant, a mobile payments platform, and a serial tech entrepreneur whose cloud-based technology is powering some of FIS’ mobile offerings. The message: FIS has the mobile tech a credit union or bank needs. For instance: Brown demoed FIS’ Cardless Cash Access which lets a consumer withdraw real money from an ATM using only a smartphone (no debit card required).
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- Banks should follow Apple, Starbucks in branch redesigns
It’s certainly true that banks are rationalizing the sheer number of branches they support, especially in regions where the costs outweigh the returns. But banks are also investing in the branch experience, which has led to lots of design and technology enhancements. By redesigning branches, banks are aiming to modernize the bank experience. This modernization has gone through many incarnations over the past decade.
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- FBI Briefs Bank Executives On DDoS Attack Campaign
FBI expedited security clearances so it could share classified info on Operation Ababil, a distributed denial of service attack that continues to disrupt U.S. financial websites. The FBI recently granted one-day clearances to security officers and executives at numerous banks so it could share classified intelligence on the Operation Ababil campaign that’s been disrupting U.S. financial websites for almost a year.
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- 5 Hot Opportunities for Start-ups
Fresh numbers from Intuit shine a light on where consumers are spending the most–and where you might want to look for new business ideas. One way to find a hot business idea is to follow the money: Where are consumers spending the most? If that’s your approach, consider Intuit’s recently released findings from its Consumer Spending Index. It’s based on anonymized and aggregated data from more than 2 million Mint.com (an Intuit-owned budgeting tool) users who have agreed to share their demographic information such as age, gender, income, and location. The index measures spending habits from January 2009 to April 2013 and shows consumer spending is up nine percent from four years ago, and significantly so in certain sectors.
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- The Next Generation of Cross-sell
Too many financial institutions assume that cross-selling means offering products to every customer who walks through the door. According to Russell Lester, Director of Analytics at Intuit Financial Services, getting consumers to adopt lower cost services or channels can be a very profitable form of cross-sell. The cost of depositing a check using RDC on a mobile device is 10% of what it costs a bank to deposit a check in the branch. Using the previous example of an unprofitable DDA customer, it is easy to see how “cross-selling” them on RDC could result in a lower cost (and thus more profitable) relationship.
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