RFID In Other Banking Areas

While there are certainly no claims that RFID will alleviate the issues with the mortgage crisis that are still looming, banks are still investing in it with the hope for future returns.  As the economy show signs of hope banks such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo are increasing their investmentin RFID

The focus of this RFID adoption is not primarily in customer service though. Financial institutions are using RFID technology for asset tracking and compliance since Sarbes Oxley adoption in 2002.  The asset tracking is centered on theft preventions of mobile assets and inventory automation.  Wells Fargo has implemented RFID in several of its data centers for asset tracking.

 Banking may not be the first industry on everyone’s mind when the benefits of RFID are discussed but there are definitely benefits in areas other than customer service improvement within banking. Additionally the efficiencies recognized in other areas could free up resources to be used to enhance customer service.

ZashPay Gets off to a Fast Start

In one of my previous posts I introduced ZashPay, a Fiserv product that facilitate person to person payments.   It seems that ZashPay is becoming quite popular even in the midst of competition from competitors such as PayPay.. Fiserv Inc. reports its 3-month-old ZashPay service is making headway with client financial institutions. The service now claims some 400,000 registered users; while more than 400 banks and credit unions have signed on to offer it, with 100 of those having gone live.

Fiserv, a major provider of banking and payments technology, launched ZashPay in July with 200 financial institutions already signed up but with a roster of heavy-duty rivals to contend with. While Fiserv enjoys a built-in advantage with 3,100 client institutions for its bill-pay processing service, companies like PayPal Inc., Obopay Inc., and CashEdge Inc. have been active in marketing P2P payment capabilities to banks

While Fiserv expected ZashPay to be used chiefly for smaller transactions such as payments to babysitters or shares of dinner tabs, this is not what the company has seen in the early going. Instead, tickets are averaging $150, indicating that people are instead using the service for such payments as textbook fees for children at college or fees to contractors like painters or landscapers, notes Steve Shaw, director of strategic marketing for electronic banking services at Fiserv,
Usage is also more frequent than Fiserv expected, Shaw says, with those who have adopted the service making three to four payments a month.

YES Bank’s Branch of the Future

In one of my early postings I described the system that YES bank was developing. YES’ intention is to be a technological leader in banking in India.  They have equipped an entire branch with state of the art technology, all aimed at providing a high-quality, customer-centric service.

The technologies in place at the branch include an Automated Teller Cash Dispenser Machine, Touch Screen Internet Kiosks, Speech enabled voice recognition phone banking, Wi Fi connectivity and a Knowledge facility among other facilities.  YES also has a lounge designed as an exclusive banking enclave offering privacy and comfort to customers wishing to discuss business and finance in a first-class environment.

YES prides itself on its knowledge driven approach to banking, and a superior customer experience for its retail, corporate and emerging corporate banking clients. Their aim is to”transform retail branches into 'Service Oriented Advisory Centers' thus shifting the focus from providing vanilla transactions to high-end value added services through the innovative use of technology and futuristic branch design.”  Thus far they have done an excellent job in this transformation!

Biometrics and Banking (National Bank of Australia

National Bank of Australian has adopted a voice biometrics based authentication solution for its telephone banking customers. This is in an effort to reduce fraud.

After initial minor issues with getting users enrolled, NAB had much success in implementing this system and has received positive feedback from customers.  They are considering expanding this system to mobile internet banking and online payments.

Besides voice there are other biometric systems that are quickly being adopted in banking.  One company Global Rainmakers has developed an iris scanning system called HBOX.  The plan is to have this technology deployed in mobile phones to allow remote authentication.  This will go into a mobile phone that has a high enough resolution to complete the registration.

Banks traditionally have been very conservative in protecting customer’s data, and customers expect it. The idea is to have added security with biometrics and reduce customer exposure and fraud. 

One concern with the infusion of biometrics in banking is the probable impact on the customer experience.  In as much as customers want their information protected they do not want to be inconvenienced to achieve that protection in many cases.

Tim Cullen head of direct channels with NAB says of voice biometrics, “"There's probably not a lot of new technologies out there that create a safer experience that are easier to use or create a better customer experience”.  If the experience of NAB’s customers will be the norm then we can expect that vast adoption of voice and other biometrics in banking for improved security.

Voice Biometrics and Mobile Banking

With so many carrying out banking transactions via cell phone it seems like a logical step to combine voice biometrics with mobile banking.  Voice Commerce Group has developed a system which enables the adoption of biometrics based voice signatures by financial institutions. 

The system that they have developed is called Voice Transact. Voice Commerce has teamed up with Nuance a leading provider of speech recognition solutions to enable the biometric element of Voice Transact. The main advantage of this system, known as Voice Transact,  is to  eliminate fraud resulting from the exchange of information via a cell phone.
Voice Transact may also be used to facilitate person to person payments as well as to allow customers to authorize increased credit lines.

One con to voice signatures is the possibility of a bad cell phone connection disallowing authentication.  Also many customers have grown used to the concept of a PIN and card and may not necessarily want that taken away.  In that event this system could be used as a backup to the PIN.

Many feel that in general voice biometrics systems should not be used to replace pins but rather has a backup in the even that the customer loses their card etc.  I would tend to agree with t his viewpoint. 

ZashPay for P-2-P Payments

Fiserv, one of the leaders in banking solutions and my current employer (J ) offers a product called ZashPay to several financial credit unions enabling their customers to conduct person-2-person payments. PSCU, one of the nation’s largest Credit Union Service Providers recently adopted ZashPay and added it to their online bill pay program.
ZashPay allows customers to send money to anyone using their name and email address or telephone number. The money is sent from the customer’s payment account to the other party’s account. Money can be transferred in as little as one business day. ZashPay allows the customer to send money without sharing their bank information with the receiver or having to stop at the ATM or mail a check.
I think this will be competition for companies such as Money Gram and Western Union at least for domestic money transfers.

Biometrics in banking

Smartcards are pocket sized cards with an integrated circuit to process information. They store data that can be in the form of information or value or both. Another type of card used to store information is the biometric card. Biometric cards are used to automatically identify users based on physiological or behavioral characteristics. Biometric authentication requires comparing a registered biometric sample with a newly captured biometric sample.
IMFAST is a technology that uses Biometric Cards and NFC (near field communicator). The transaction operator uses a NFC phone to provide service to customers. The customer will be provided with the low-cost RFID (radio frequency identification device) based smart card. In this model, phone acts as the reader for the card.
iMFAST has been designed with unique features to address the rural environmental conditions (heat, dust and moisture, etc) and the target population (illiteracy).It provides voice guidance in the local language for transactions and authentication. Biometric authenticated transactions improve confidence levels among rural people. Lower cost, mobility, varied connectivity, identification, authentication and multiple applications are the USPs in a nut shell.