Bank apps can improve customer experience with better authentication: Mitek report

Changing expectations for digital interactions are ratcheting up pressure on banks to upgrade the identity verification and authentication capabilities of their mobile apps, according to a new report from Mitek.

At the same time as mobile banking has been transforming the retail financial industry, mobile-first interactions have been overhauling user expectations. Banks have been dutifully adopting technologies like multi-factor authentication and biometrics to secure their mobile apps, but Mitek’s report shows that their efforts are having mixed impacts on customer experience.

The “2023 Mobile Deposit Benchmark Report” ranks the top 20 American retail banks and credit unions on customer experience. The report examines the adoption of mobile deposits and associated fraud risks, and how consumer perceive them.

Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed (72 percent) are “very” or “somewhat” concerned that mobile banking will enable someone to steal their identity.

Customer banking apps were criticized for lacking biometric logins or making it difficult to re-enable biometric access after reaching the maximum number of failed log-in attempts. Problems reported with MFA include “overbearing,” slow and repetitive processes, and failing to make clear when it is optional.

Mitek has been encouraging financial services providers to move beyond legacy authentication and onboarding practices to adopt biometrics, but also to use a carefully-orchestrated, multi-layered approach to ID verification with a series of e-books and white papers.

The latest resource from the company on how to upgrade identity assurance is a paper on fighting fraud with multimodal biometric authentication. Mitek reviews the steps to take to implement multimodal biometric authentication in the customer journey, the relationship between friction and liveness detection and provides guidance on choosing a biometrics provider.

“Financial institutions are critical partners to their small business customers—not only in supporting their growth, but also in safeguarding them from fraud,” says Michael Diamond, SVP and GM of Digital Banking at Mitek, in announcing the report. “The findings in Mitek’s 2023 Mobile Deposit Benchmark Report show the heightened need for comprehensive fraud protection solutions designed to cater to the needs of small businesses.”

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  identity assurance  |  identity verification  |  Mitek  |  mobile app