Why authentication matters for digital marketers

One of the major hurdles to digital banking acceptance is the concern about mobile risk and fraud. It is the financial marketer's responsibility to ensure that their organization has an authentication process that is both easy and secure.

September 25, 2015 by Ann Reichert, The Financial Brand

The mobile channel is quickly becoming the preferred method for consumer shopping, payments and account opening. A recent Forbes article pointed out that mobile shopping applications grew faster than any other category in 2014, with sessions on shopping apps on iOS and Android devices increasing by 174% year-over-year, while another study showed that nearly a third (33%) of online shoppers made at least one purchase via smartphone in the past 12 months. With all of this growth, Forrester predicts that mobile retail sales in the U.S. will reach $31B by 2017.

But, as the mobile channel continues to grow, the risk of fraud grows as well. Concerns about fraud are increasing – both from consumers and the organizations participating in the mobile transactions. The LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud report shows that M-commerce merchants saw a 70% spike in the revenue lost to fraud in 2014, with more than one-fifth (21%) of all fraudulent transactions being attributed to the mobile channel.

If financial marketers want to capture more of the growing, profitable, ‘mobile-first’ consumer segment, they need to support work on improving identity verification and authentication to protect their organization and their customers/members from fraud. And, to truly be successful, bank and credit union marketers must lobby internally for ID verification processes that are quick and easy to fit with consumers’ mobile expectations.