Lloyds Bank partners with Callsign to bolster cybersecurity

The lender will use Callsign to provide digital identification and authentication of online payments, as required by an EU directive that takes effect on September 19, 2019.

The Second Payment Services Directive will require most online payments above EUR 30 to go through an extra level of verification such as entering a code received via a text message.

Banks warned in June 2019 that up to a quarter of online payments would fail after it comes into effect because new systems have not be tested at scale and many smaller businesses did not yet have access to the necessary software.

Callsign’s technology dispenses with passwords and instead uses multiple real-time data points to help ensure someone is who they say they are. Its software uses artificial intelligence to build a picture of the user and learn how they interact with mobile devices. If they were in an unfamiliar location or swipe in an unusual way, for example, it would trigger an alert.

The software can blacklist devices involved in past fraud cases and can be used with other authentication programmes.

Lloyds, which owns brands including Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows, has 15 million customers actively managing their account online and 9 million on mobile devices.

It is investing GBP 3 billion in technology in the next few years as financial services companies try to find ways to secure people’s accounts without forcing them to adopt cumbersome log-in procedures.

Callsign can allow customers to log into accounts with a single swipe on their phone and Lloyds may introduce that system to its customers.