Cisco report shows consumers want personalized bank experience, trust biometrics

A new Cisco Customer Experience Report focused on retail banking has found that customers want a more seamless and personalized experience from their bank and are mostly willing to share biometric information with bankers.

The report looks at consumers’ desire for personalized banking across multiple channels, including online, smartphone telephone and physical bank branches. The report includes responses from 1,514 consumers and 405 bank professionals across 10 countries.

In the report, consumers indicated a willingness to exchange more details about their financial habits and having banks be more active advisors in exchange for greater protection from identity theft (83%), increased savings (80%), personalized service (78%), and greater simplicity (56%) in managing their finances.

Encouraging news for the biometrics community, 53% of U.S. consumers would provide their bank with a fingerprint or other biometrics to verify financial transactions to protect the consumer against dangers such as identity theft. Globally 61% of consumers would share biometric data, with Japanese consumers least likely with only 33%.

This jibes well with a recent study on passwords and online authentication, published by the Ponemon Institute, which finds that the majority of its respondents believe it is acceptable for a trusted organization such as a bank, to use biometrics for identity verification.

Financial institutions are quickly becoming major adopters of biometric information and voice biometrics seems to be a prevalent focus.  A recent Biometric Research Note suggests mobile devices are driving this adoption.

“The battle for the financial consumer has begun,” Jorgen Ericsson, vice president, Global Financial Services Practice, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) said. “Retail banks that succeed in providing a seamless customer experience across all channels to market — branch, mobile, online, contact center — will be the winners of the future. Superior customer experience will be the only long term sustainable differentiator.”

Article Topics

authentication  |  banking  |  verification