Secure digital transactions gain prominence in banks’ day-to-day operations

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The speed of digital processes and their security support financial institutions in encouraging change

The new reality and technological advances have generated the need for many companies to offer their services through the Internet. Depending on the sector, the process will be more or less complex to digitize and will require more measures to ensure customer confidence and security. This is the case of banking, where digital transactions are gaining ground over the increasingly disappearing analog processes.   

For years, financial institutions have evolved rapidly by digitizing their services with the aim of improving all the inconveniences generated by traditional processes. In this way the customer avoids waiting times in the office, traffic jams, asking permission at work to go to the bank, etc. and saves money and health, avoiding costly trips.   

The analog process also had disadvantages for banks, such as economic losses caused by hiring more employees, fines for lost documents or failures in their verification, loss of time trying to make appointments, searching for lost papers, etc., not to mention the conflicts between employees and customers that affect the health of the staff.  

For some time now, banks have been implementing secure digital transactions accelerated by the development of laws such as AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer). In addition to these measures, there is the electronic verification of identity required by the Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Monetary Offenses (Sepblac), which enables banks to prevent attacks by cybercriminals and their fraudulences.   

Banks use the identity verification service in the onboarding processes of new customers. The most important thing is to know that the person is who they say they are.  The process is very simple. The customer is asked to identify themselves and the customer provides all the data. Then we proceed to the AML and KYC user verification, where the documentation will be validated, by means of a capture or photo of the document and the user’s identity using the Biometric Identification system. In addition, the user’s physical and behavioral traits will be analyzed. All of this will also be a recorded process so that the financial institution has an exact record of how it happened.  

In recent years, cybercriminals have become more organized and operate in a joint and automated way, also by means of bots, which is why banks have to maximize their security measures.   

However, the increasing number of these measures produces a lot of friction for the user, who is now faced with a login via password, accompanied by the need to receive and enter an OTP or One Time Password sent via telephone, which sometimes requests a coordinate code in order to authorize a transaction. This is real hell for the user.   

Let’s hope that soon a good balance between security and usability can be found to make digital banking a pleasant process for users.   

In the meantime, let’s be patient because even if it is sometimes a bit frustrating to interact digitally with the bank, at least we no longer have to constantly scroll as in the past to open – for example – a bank account with which to start operating.