What makes tokenization a trusted security layer in payment transactions for both customers and organisations? For what type of business is this technology best suited?
The daily life of banking customers is becoming increasingly digital, given the growth of different channels to manage their banking needs. Services on offer include mobile wallets, digital payment facilities, online marketplace checkouts, and the emerging variety of IoT – ready devices now capable of enabling transactions for the customers.
These ever-connected customer opportunities create new business models for banks to enhance their offerings, but they also come with a host of dangers brought on by the growing number of places in which customers can engage. The greater the risks, the more customers want to be reassured about how their data is being managed and how credentials are being provisioned.
Regardless of how customers engage with their bank, their personal data needs to be handled with care, and their digital credentials must be securely generated, managed, and provisioned to their device of choice. This could be a mobile phone, a wearable, or simply a card. But it does not stop there. With the Internet of Things, the digital credentials tokenized by payment brands will increasingly be shared to all kinds of connected devices at home and outside of the home too, including vehicles.
How secure are my digital financial services in a world of digital transformation?
Big banks and financial companies are further enhancing their digital services through virtual personal assistants (VPA) such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google’s Assistant. Customers in countries supported by their VPA can now check their balances, pay bills, and in some cases even send money via VPA commands with more digital services set to follow.
Yet, while this enhances the digital offerings of banks and makes sense from a competitive edge standpoint, the ability to undertake sensitive financial tasks through a smart speaker, raises security issues.
Asking Siri to play a song or Google for a restaurant recommendation is one thing, but it’s another issue when it comes to sharing sensitive personal information. VPAs and smart speakers are new, developing technologies and using them for financial tasks offers another possible entry point for cybercriminals.
The challenge for banks is not to squander one of their most valuable assets in the rush for a competitive advantage.
Historically the banking business is built on trust and even as customers increasingly open up to data‐driven digital and mobile services, they want to be assured that personal data will be protected and their financial assets secured.
To make sure they maintain and increase customer trust in this age of digital banking, financial service providers need a smart, customised IT strategy that transparently ensures the security of all digital access services. Given the diverse array of devices used to access financial information, it is critical that security to not be limited to one area, but a holistic approach to be adopted as the system architecture of devices offers diverse attack points for cybercriminals seeking to steal data or run frauds and scams.
The desire of banks to be front‐runners in providing powerful, new, and attractive digital financial services needs to be carefully balanced against the need to ensure the security of those services. While digital banking services may ensure a decided competitive edge, banks need to maintain the trust that has been fundamental to the success of their business model.
With cyberattacks becoming ever more sophisticated, the trusty password has well passed its use‐by‐date. In an age when massive data breaches are all too common, the question for financial institutions is what will replace passwords?
SMS confirmations containing one‐time passwords (OTPs) are a convenient alternative, but do not meet the authentication required under the new open banking landscape. So to ensure compliance and to fight fraud, banks and financial institutions are turning to biometric authentication to identify customers and safeguard resources. Biometric authentication uses multi‐layer combinations of facial, fingerprint, and voice recognition tools, as well as other technologies to verify the unique identity of each individual.
Creating confidence and securing the banking and financial industry is at the heart of G+D, as trust is the currency of the future. And this is something we have done since rolling out the world’s first machine‐readable bank note, and as we were instrumental in developing the eurocheque system in 1969, which evolved into modern debit cards. Based on our security experience, that caters now also multitude of digital solutions, we believe biometric identifications provide a trustworthy, secure, and seamless access to mobile financial services available.
Overall, established banks need to move quickly to remain relevant as other alternative payment methods are providing fierce competition in the fintech space. The most compelling argument for biometric authentication comes back to one of the oldest one for banks – trust.
What makes G+D Mobile Security’s technology unique?
G+D technology is utilised commercially by leading banks and bank groups in several European markets and countries. And our solutions are uniquely adopted into supporting for example Mastercard, Visa, girocard and other regional and local schemes and digital payments, benefiting over 1,400 issuers in Europe alone. At the end of the day, we offer a single interface for a variety of technologies and payment brands combined with a mobile security solution certified and qualified by global payment brands and domestic debit brands alike. All with security by design and compliance by default.
This interview was first published in the Fraud Prevention and Online Authentication Report 2019/2020. The Guide covers some of the security challenges encountered in the ecommerce and banking, and financial services ecosystems. Moreover, it provides payment and fraud and risk management professionals with a series of insightful perspectives on key aspects, such as fraud management, identity verification, online authentication, and regulation.
About Gabrielle Bugat
Gabrielle Bugat has a rich background in international business and many years of broad professional experience within the smart card industry. Mrs. Bugat joined G+D Mobile Security in February 2017, and is heading the Division for Financial Solutions, delivering high performing, innovative and business generating offerings for the financial industry.
About G+D Mobile Security
G+D Mobile Security is a part of the G+D Group, with more than 11,000 employees worldwide. Our 5,300 experts in over 40 sales and partner offices all over the world are glad to advise and support you with years of experience and comprehensive solutions that allow you to meet the challenges of a connected financial industry and capitalise on its opportunities.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now