NICE Actimize, a NICE business, has released a joint survey with PwC which outlined the state of omni-channel authentication strategies at financial services organizations (FSOs), observing that only 28 percent of FSOs have fully implemented cross-channel authentication management.
Though FSOs continue to invest in a wide range of authenticators, the survey found that a lack of a unified strategy to manage authentication methods across channels resulted in poor customer authentication experience and less effective fraud reduction strategies.
Titled “Omni-Channel Authentication: A Unified Approach to a Multi-Authenticator World,” the joint NICE Actimize-PwC survey finds that 63 percent of respondents from FSOs are assessing current authentication strategies to identify where there may be gaps or requirements for further investments in omni-channel authentication. The survey showed that only 30 percent of the surveyed organizations have completed that assessment to date. As a result of these strategic organizational reviews, 61 percent will invest in an omni-channel authentication solution within the next 12-18 months, according to the survey.
Customer Authentication Experience Drives Investment
Driving the omni-channel authentication investment, a strong 83 percent of fraud management teams singled out a frictionless customer authentication experience as a key central driver behind their efforts.
“This strong trend toward investment in omni-channel authentication by leading financial services organizations is not surprising,” explains Vikas Agarwal, Principal, PwC. “Traditionally the customer authentication experience has been cumbersome, in large part due to a lack of unified authentication management. In an age of authentication innovation, consumers want preferences in authentication type. But with many disparate authenticators in play, users face inconsistent experiences in each channel and lengthy and excessive challenges.”
Analytics for Faster Payments
“As FSOs invest in innovative and diverse authentication methods, they will also seek an orchestration strategy which uses sophisticated analytics to make real-time challenge decisions, which reduce friction for consumers, while keeping them safe from fraudsters. This of course will be especially necessary with the rise of faster payments where authentication is the first line of defense,” said Joe Friscia, President, NICE Actimize. “NICE Actimize offers innovations that meet the requirements of today’s omni-channel authentication management environment.”
The 65 subject matter expert respondents represented a global view, with 38 percent serving in active roles in Europe, 20 percent in North American, 13 percent in Asia Pacific and 14 percent claiming other global roles. More than half of the respondents represented retail banking and the rest were spread evenly across corporate and private banking enterprises. About one-third of the respondents were responsible for fraud prevention, while one third were responsible for digital transformation and customer experience.
The survey respondents also represented a range of financial services organization sizes. About 25 percent of the institutions surveyed represented global Tier 1 organizations with assets greater than $500 billion, while 26 percent represented firms with assets below $10B, the remaining 49 percent were spread equally across mid-tier organizations.
For a copy of the white paper that includes the results of this study, please click here.