SAN FRANCISCO—Noting that non-card fraud nearly tripled from 2012 to 2013 and resulted in total loss of $5 billion, Javelin Strategy and Research has released its 2014 Identity Safety in Banking report, which evaluates the top 50 institutions on their performance in providing consumer facing information about account security features.
“The winning financial institutions are educating consumers about features and services and confronting the broadest array of fraud threats and to manage the damage when all defenses fail,” Javelin said.
Nevertheless, with so many ways to break in and take over consumer accounts and with the resulting need for secondary authentication for high-risk transactions within a banking session is at an all-time high, Javelin said it found just one-in-five FIs currently utilizes this additional layer of security, compared to 100% of the Prevention winners—Union Bank, Bank of America, Bank of the West, HSBC and USAA. One‐time passwords sent to a mobile phone are effective in a high-risk situation, yet are only used by 20% of top 50 FIs, compared to 40% of Prevention awardees, Javelin said.
Navy Federal and State Employees CU were among the 50 institutions considered.
“Take advantage of the full range of mobile capabilities — it’s not enough to just have an app”, said Al Pascual, Senior Analyst of Fraud & Security at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Banks should encourage mobile app use by limiting the features offered through browser login when the device is identified as a mobile device, or offering to waive fees for services if the mobile app is used.”