Sarah Rutherford

With ambitious goals to open up banking and decimate fraud, PSD2 has taken a long time to deliver, and we’re not quite there yet. In many European Union countries, the implementation of Strong Customer Authentication will become a reality in the coming months – but are they ready? And perhaps more importantly, are their customers? PSD2 requires security measures to…

Trust goes both ways – particularly when it comes to customer identity management, and especially in the banking sector. We set out to find out whether banks are in-step with their customers when it comes to how they ensure that those opening accounts are who they say they are, and that people accessing existing accounts are the legitimate account holders. To find…

Until recently, most consumer-facing organizations have relied on username and passwords to secure accounts. However, widespread data breaches mean that password data has been leaked and can be bought by criminals on the dark web. Plus, consumers don’t like passwords as a security measure. Our recent survey found that only 40 percent of people are prepared to use u…

With the COVID-19 lockdown wiping out many face-to-face interactions, it’s hardly surprising that more of what we do has naturally moved online. For the consumer, online shopping has become the norm, but so too has opening accounts digitally; even if you look at financial accounts where many would say there is a higher risk of loss. 89 percent of UK citizens say th…

Face to face interactions are currently limited and the battleground for new customers has switched to the digital environment. Those organizations that offer fast, seamless experiences and secure on-boarding might hope to win market share – but even if financial institutions are prepared to make the switch to digital account opening are their customers ready to get o…

Security and Authentication in a Digital World For many years we’ve been reliant on usernames and passwords to secure digital accounts – but we know these aren’t adequate. Mass data breaches have made account information and passwords available to buy extremely cheaply on the dark web.  They simply don’t do the job – so what happens next? Any new authentica…

The use of biometrics is growing, to prove identity when new financial accounts are opened and when existing accounts are used. As more interactions become digital, biometric use has become acceptable to more customers. This was illustrated in a recent independent survey carried out on behalf of FICO of 5,000 people across ten countries. In all countries surveyed, mor…

Adaptive identity authentication is the process of tailoring each customer authentication to the specifics of the request. It involves calibrating multiple sets of risk indicators to determine the type of authentication needed, and how strong to make it. Adaptive identity authentication is increasingly important. Customers want to start and finish their interaction…

We recently commissioned a survey of 5,000 people across 10 countries to better understand how people view security when they open or use their accounts. This shows that most have become relaxed about using biometrics in order to identify themselves to a range of providers including their banks. They report they are happy to give their bank a biometric such as facial,…

The Contingent Reimbursement Model is a UK payments industry initiative designed to compensate victims of authorised push payment fraud (APP fraud). Over the past few years, there has been a steady stream of reports of APP fraud — this is where fraudsters use social engineering techniques to trick people or representatives of businesses to send money to them. UK Finan…

Recently banks have hit the headlines both for failing to detect money laundering and for freezing the accounts of legitimate customers when money laundering is suspected. Given that sometimes a financial institution can have both problems, it’s not simply a matter of lifting or lowering their thresholds for suspicion. Banks are treading a fine line – if they are o…

In our brave new world, the use of artificial intelligence can be a contentious issue. For many, the question of AI as friend or foe is not yet resolved. Those who work in fraud management provide a shining example of how AI can be a force for good, and have been doing so for over quarter of a century. Despite being early adopters of AI, now is not the time for fra…