Sarah Rutherford

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…

In recent years there has been much talk of the fraud and financial crime departments at banks working together more closely. To better understand the path to convergence of these two vital functions, it is necessary to understand what drives them. FICO commissioned research and analyst company Ovum to carry out an independent research survey to uncover the main co…

Fraud management and AML compliance are both about tackling financial crime, but often they are managed by different teams, each with their own processes and technology. For many years the idea of convergence in managing financial crime at banks has been under discussion — but is this a meaningful trend or simply wishful thinking? When it comes to the technology to…

Last week UK Finance published their annual fraud report ‘Fraud the Facts 2019’. This year’s report noted that authorised push payment fraud was up by 44% - so what does this leap in the statistic actually show? And how does it fit into the wider context of industry concerns and actions around this type of scam? [caption id="attachment_38049" align="alignnone" width=…

When opening new online accounts, fraud professionals must protect their organization from fraud and keep legitimate customers happy. Application fraud controls must be strong enough to prevent significant losses, but at the same time the application processes shouldn’t be off-putting to customers. It can be difficult to determine the impact that application fraud co…