Blog - Page 1277 of 1286

“Security Freeze” is the New Buzzword in Bank Marketing

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 15, 2005
Categories: Security & Privacy

Security freeze is the latest buzzword in the world of privacy and online security. It was used today in the title of an article in The Wall Street Journal's Personal Journal section, Freezing Out Identity Theft.

Here's how it used in the first sentence of the article:

In an effort to combat the rapidly escalating outbreak of identity-theft crimes, a handful of states including California and Texas have passed legislation that allows consumers to put a "security freeze" on their credit history.

Action Item
Use this phrase in your marketing to reassure wary customers. For example,

"Once you report any fraud, phishing, or identity theft, we will put a security freeze on your bank accounts against any unauthorized withdrawals." "If someone tries to guess your password, we'll freeze your account against any more attempts."

And eventually as you develop more advanced security preferences, customers will have the…

Security Applications may jump-start Mobile Banking

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 14, 2005
Categories: Mobile Banking, Security & Privacy

With the ubiquity of personal computers in the United States, the text messaging market has been slower to develop here than abroad. And since most banking interactions can wait until you are comfortably situated in front of your home/work PC, mobile banking applications have not been a high priority.

However, there is a new application that may jump-start mobile phone banking initiatives. Security.

With public confidence in the security of online banking waning, telephones, especially cell phones equipped with text messaging, offer an excellent option for secure two-factor authentication.

Here's how it works:
1. Log in to the bank the old-fashioned way with username and password
2. A few seconds later, a four-digit number is text-messaged to your cell phone, or voicemailed to your land-line phone
3. Enter the four digits and start transacting

Text messaging can also be used for alerts, reminders, and other services.

But are U.S.…

Virtual Open House for your Bank

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 10, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Website Usability & Design

How many times per month would you look at your bank's website, other than online banking, if you didn't work there?

Zero would be pretty close, I'd wager.

Case in point: I have far more interest than the average consumer, but I can count on one hand the times I've looked at my bank's website during the past seven or eight years since its been online.

Sure I login most weeks, but my visit consists of finding the login button as soon as it loads, then moving into online banking to take care of my business. (Don't tell my website usability collegues I said this, but it might be worth moving the login button around from time to time to "force" users become engaged with your homepage.)

Zero visits per month makes it tough to introduce new products, promotions, and features. Or to get customers to use self-service.

Action Item
…

HSBC Right-Sizes Website Fonts

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 9, 2005
Categories: HSBC

Do you get complaints that the copy on your website is too small?

First, make sure that you have not disabled the customer's ability to control font size from their browser toolbar. This allows your savvier customers to easily change font sizes whenever necessary.

However, for the rest, who haven't a clue that it's even possible to change font size, consider adding a utility to your navigation menu that automates the process.

HSBC's UK website features the above utility box on most interior pages, with the exception being the homepage. Not only can users easily increase/decrease text size (note the use of user-friendly language), they can also print the page or click through to the customer service contact center (itself a model of user-friendliness).

--JB

Southwest’s Ding Marketing Direct to the Desktop

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 4, 2005
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Desktop Presence

Southwest Airlines, the cheeky U.S. discounter, has just launched a desktop alert system, aptly called Ding, that bypasses the entire spam-clogged email system and delivers alerts to the Windows system tray. It works much like WeatherBug, the popular weather application with more than 10 million users.

When a new fare becomes available, Southwest plays an audible tone and inserts an envelope over the Ding icon in the Windows system tray (see graphic right--click to enlarge). Users can click on the icon to launch the Southwest website and act on the special offer.

Analysis
You'd have to be a real Southwest frequent-flyer nut to want the airline dinging you with messages every day. But since most companies make 80% of their profits from 20% of their customers, this is probably a savvy move from the airline.

Certainly, Southwest knows what it's doing. And since they do not sell tickets…

More Online Fraud Statistics from Gartner

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 3, 2005
Categories: Metrics & Market Research, Security & Privacy

Fraud-fighting vendors, Quova and Cyota hosted a webinar today featuring Avivah Litan, from Gartner.

A couple interesting Gartner stats that you can use in trying to gain additional resources to boost your authentication procedures:

Within 3 years (YE 2007), 60% to 75% of U.S. banks will use more than username/password at login. That's up from zero today. In the year prior to Gartner's April 2004 consumer research, a projected 1.8 million consumers gave up their account info to phishers; this group was three times more likely to have been victimized by online fraud.

You should be able to view an archived version of the webinar at Quova within the next day or two.

--JB

More on E*Trade’s Two-Factor Authentication Launch

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 2, 2005
Categories: E*Trade, Security & Privacy

Today's American Banker (subscription required) reported that E*Trade will give security tokens to its high-roller customers, those that trade more than 5 times per month or who have more than $50,000 in their accounts.

As we reported in January, E*Trade has been testing the service with several hundred customers.

The quote of the day is from famed Gartner analyst, Avivah Litan:

However, banks face little risk from trying the technology, which has significant potential, she said. "If they get low adoption, they're not spending very much money. If they get high adoption, they sell a lot more services. I could see people switching to E-Trade if they offer this type of security."

Analysis
The days of simple username and password access are numbered. Don't be the last one on your block to install a security system, that's a sure way to become the target of cybercriminals, and even worse,…

Quantifying Online Interbank Transfer Volumes

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 1, 2005
Categories: Epayments, MasterCard

We've been tracking the developments in account-to-account transfers closely, in preparation for an upcoming Online Banking Report on the subject. It's tough to get a handle on the actual dollar volumes, so we were pleased to see American Banker's Daniel Wolfe quantify the market size.

In Friday's article (subscription required), MasterCard's TowerGroup payments analyst, Beth Robertson is quoted as saying that in 2004, $730 billion was transferred via account-to-account transfer (i.e., a funds transfer from an individual's account at one financial institution to the same customer's account at another). That amounts to more than $7000 for each of approximately 100 million U.S. households. All but a billion or so was initiated off-line.

But the online portion is growing. CashEdge the leading supplier of online account-to-account transfers, expects to process $6 billion in 2005, that's about $200 annually for each of the 30 million or so U.S. online banking households. However,…

Phishing Vaccine for Email in UK

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 26, 2005
Categories: Security & Privacy

In the United Kingdom, the government has launched an initiative to inform its citizens of phishing and other fraud dangers. One of its key services is an email and/or text message service that informs users when new fraud threats are identified.

To fight the problem of having their own emails spoofed, they require users to select a "safe word" that will be used in the subject line of all emails.

Analysis
Not only is this an effective way to fight phishing, it helps personalize your messages, improving their chances of being read.

-- JB

Adding Sales Punch to Bank Homepages

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 23, 2005
Categories: Website Usability & Design

UK-based Alliance & Leicester doesn't accept the premise that banking websites should be drab and colorless. Their orange-and-blue effort shouts "pay attention," perhaps a bit too loudly.

But there are more things to like in this homepage than there are to criticize.

Like

Prominent login on left side Strong benefit statements in headlines, for example, 50 times more credit interest than other banks Interactive loan calculator

Dislike

Too much animation competing for the eye, for example, four of the banners feature animation, three of which continue to endlessly cycle (if you use animation, make it stop after one or two cycles) Overwhelming, where do you look first? Everything looks like a come-on, where's the content?

But whether one likes the design or not, the proof is in the results. And I bet the bank pulls in more new business from its home page than its more staid competitors.

However, a…

“My Spending Report” from Wells Fargo

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 17, 2005
Categories: Epayments, Images & Online Archives, Personal Financial Management, Wells Fargo

2005 is off to an innovative start, first the launch of Billeo, a toolbar-based bill payment manager. Now, Wells Fargo puts a little sizzle into its online banking steak, with a preformatted spending report, ala Quicken, appropriately named, My Spending Report.

The bank's press release says its patent-pending, which we can only hope is a marketing gimmick.

Here's how the bank describes the service:

...combines spending transactions from a customer's check card, credit card, checking account and bill pay in one convenient place, accessed through a secured, online banking session and updated automatically each day. Electronic and bill payment transactions are organized by familiar categories such as gas/automotive, groceries, ATM withdrawals, etc.

Analysis
We will see more and more innovations around data delivery as banks try to differentiate their online services and add value. The stream of banking data available online is begging to be organized, analyzed,…

Bill Payment Toolbar from Billeo

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 16, 2005
Categories: Best of the Web, Bill payment, Billeo, Desktop Presence, Epayments

Just when you thought the banks were gaining an upper hand in the electronic bill payment battle, up pops a newcomer with a fresh approach. Take a moment to check out Billeo. An odd name, but so is iPod, and it seems to be working pretty well.

We haven't used it yet, so these comments are preliminary, but "on paper" this company and its approach appear to be winners. (One caveat: the business model is unknown, and the privacy policy is a bit ambiguous when it comes to the issue of adware. We'll keep you posted on what we find out.)

Billeo is a free toolbar-resident application that plays "virtual assistant," enabling more convenient and controlled direct bill payment at vendor sites. The toolbar also serves as an e-wallet simplifying online point-of-sale transactions.

Analysis
The toolbar contains several unique features, one of which is extremely impressive,…