Quarantine protocols have driven more consumers to shift from in-person visits to digital platforms for their daily activities, including banking and other financial transactions. While online and mobile banking was already on the rise before COVID-19, the pandemic has pushed the rapid adoption of these remote financial services at an unprecedented scale.
According to Visa, contactless payments increased by 150% from March 2019 to March 2020. In addition, FIS Global’s 2020 survey revealed that about 45% of Americans changed their interactions with their banks since the pandemic started and noted a 200% growth in new mobile banking users. Other financial technology or “fintech” companies are also gaining traction with first-time digital payment users.
This digital transformation changed customers’ expectations towards financial services enterprises, particularly their demand for an easier and faster onboarding experience.
With this shift in consumer behavior, financial enterprises must reassess their policies and simplify their digital services for a more customer-centric approach. They must leverage technological advances to automate operations fully.
Through modern technology, they can meet customer demand for a more convenient and secure user experience while complying with more stringent regulations amid the COVID-19 crisis.
What Customers Expect from Digital Banking Services in the Age of COVID-19
Deloitte’s research showed that 38% of banking clients regard the user experience as the most important aspect when choosing a digital bank, and 26% state that streamlined onboarding and login are their primary deciding factor. They want the flexibility to create new accounts using any channel at their convenience. When people have a poor customer onboarding experience, they are more likely to abandon the new account opening procedure.
Most users expect banking firms to have a fully automated system that streamlines the remote onboarding procedure. In their recent article on industry changes during COVID-19, the American Bankers Association cited that more than 30% of users are more likely to replace their current financial services provider with another one that offers better digital services.
To satisfy these expectations, banking firms must leverage technology that enables the completion of digital enrollment processes on any channel with minimal friction.
Role of Identity Verification in Remote Onboarding
With the influx of new digital banking users during the pandemic, financial enterprises must meet customer demand and ensure security in their operations.
Identity assurance is paramount in the remote onboarding processes. Since financial services companies cannot see who is trying to create a new account in their digital platform, they often rely on their clients’ personal information and credentials to verify that they are legitimate customers.
Federal agencies have updated Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) guidelines following international standards to mitigate security risks amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Banks must implement more stringent Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedures to verify that they are transacting with real persons whose intentions for using their services are truthful.
Modern identity verification solutions that leverage mobile biometrics and include identity document authentication can help banking firms determine the validity of someone’s identity and provided credentials. This digital technology makes online enrollment easier and more secure by eliminating fraudulent identities at the start of the customer engagement.
Meeting Customer Demand with Mobile Solutions
There are Identity as a Service (IDaaS) vendors that offer identity verification technology that can be easily integrated into mobile devices. Many are maximizing the potentials of mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers to expedite digital processes while providing consumers the option to use their channel of preference.
Customers can utilize their camera-enabled device to take a selfie and quickly perform biometric identity proofing during the online enrollment procedure. They can also use their mobile device to capture a photo of their identity documents and submit them to financial organizations for authentication.
Through automated credential checks, digital systems can quickly determine the authenticity of a credential and match the information and ID photo to the data and selfie provided by the customer.
By leveraging mobile technology, financial organizations can guarantee client satisfaction and ensure security in their operations from remote onboarding and extend the same service quality throughout other digital banking processes.
Conclusion
People need to access financial services safely and efficiently for their daily tasks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of quarantine measures, more and more people are rapidly shifting to digital banking.
This surge in new mobile bank users has changed people’s expectations, pushing financial enterprises to adopt fully automated onboarding systems capable of satisfying their clients’ needs. Modern consumers demand convenience and security with digital banking services.
If banks and fintech companies fail to provide what their clients want, customers will take their business elsewhere. Addressing consumer needs enables a financial services company to gain a competitive advantage in the industry.
To meet this changing demand for a better customer experience, banking companies must utilize modern identification solutions that provide omni-channel support, streamlined processes, and ensure security in online enrollments.
Proof™ by authID delivers trusted identity verification for remote onboarding of customers. It harnesses mobile technology, anti-spoofing liveness confirmation, and biometric matching of a selfie to verified credentials to expedite processes and mitigate fraud. To provide the financial services sector with the highest level of identity assurance, Proof also offers automated identity document authentication including validation of US, Canadian and Mexican driver’s licenses.
Schedule a Demo with authID
authID.ai is a provider of an Identity as a Service (IDaaS) platform that delivers a suite of secure, mobile, biometric identity solutions, available to any vertical, anywhere. authID‘s products can be easily integrated into financial enterprises’ digital systems to meets consumer demand for a seamless and secure remote onboarding experience amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact authID today at 1 (516) 778-5639 or click here to schedule a demo.
