On August 9, Bank of America redesigned its email alerts (note 1). The biggest change came in repositioning, renaming, and highlighting a security feature, “last login time.” The info is now in a prominent gray box at the top called the Security Checkpoint. Previously, it was buried in the middle of the left-hand column (see Before screenshot below).

While the Security Checkpoint is a nice bit of security marketing (note 2), I’m not sure how much additional fraud it will thwart, if any. But it’s good for the bank to appear to be doing all it can to protect customers.

Bank of America already had one of the best alerts in the business, earning an A in our most recent report (note 3). So I’m not sure why they needed a new design; perhaps, it’s just to keep things fresh. However, the redesign did nothing to fix our one criticism of the bank’s alert, the lack of meaningful info in the preview line.

After: New Bank of America email alert design (17 Aug 2010)

Before: Previous email alert design (8 Aug 2010)

Notes:
1. At least, that’s the first day the new style landed in my inbox.
2. For more info, see Online Banking Report: Marketing Security.
3. For more on email alerts, see last month’s Online Banking Report: Email Alerts & Transaction Streaming.