The financial technology landscape has evolved dramatically in the past few years.

If you work in a credit union, you’ve seen this firsthand and know it to be true. Digital banking has continued to expand at roughly the same rate today as it has for the past few years.

Yes, the technological foundation of how ordinary people manage their personal finances grew steadily for years. Then, COVID happened.

When suddenly it was no longer possible or practical for members to rely on face-to-face interactions to carry out their financial business, a new pathway had to be found. The new pathway was digital. As a result, the rate of technology adoption and innovation in financial services has skyrocketed over the past two-and-a-half years.

Now, the more than 75% of US adults prefer to do their financial business digitally. And this percentage will almost certainly grow.

Financial fraud technology has continued to expand, too.

The methods criminals use to scam members are nearly always at least a step ahead of current fraud prevention techniques and tools. It’s unfortunate this is the case. But we shouldn’t be surprised. Wherever there’s money, there’s likely to be someone who wants to cheat you out of it.

Regardless of a given scam’s digital sophistication, each fraud attempt has a common foundation with all other fraud techniques. Financial fraud virtually always begins with a breakdown of personal authentication. In other words, with apologies to the classic movie, Cool Hand Luke, what we’ve got here is a failure to authenticate.

More to the point, here’s a recent example of how risky current authentication practices can be.

A CU member wanted to withdraw a larger-than-normal amount of cash from an ATM. So, he did what any of us would do. He called the CU to request a limit increase. When he reached a live person, he was asked first for the last four digits of his SSN. Then, while still on the phone, he was handed around to other CU staffers.

Each one asked for personally identifiable identification of one type or another. And most likely, none of them realized every step of this standard process exposed the member to fraud risk.

The truth is traditional authentication methods no longer work well as a fraud deterrent.

They leave the door open for fraudsters, who are eager to take advantage of every opportunity they get. You’d think there’d be a better way by now. Well, there is!

MemberPass®, is a safe, private, and absolutely secure way for your members to verify their identity.

And it PROACTIVELY PREVENTS fraud before it happens. This is why we’re excited to share that the next generation of MemberPass is now live and available to you today!

With traditional MemberPass, you were able to:

  • Prevent fraud before it happens.
  • Complete member enrollment with minimal friction.
  • Deliver consistent member experiences across all channels and transactions
  • Eliminate passwords and challenge questions.
  • Avoid hackable central databases of personally identifiable information.
  • Enjoy lower expenses thanks to better fraud protection and less MSR time spent authenticating members.

The new next gen MemberPass also gives you these great benefits:

  • No core integration required – deploy in as few as three days.
  • No additional app for members to download.
  • Industry-leading security technology (W3C compliant / FIDO2 & Web Authn)
  • The real-time ability to detect identity, behaviors, locations, devices, and channel patterns.
  • Next gen MemberPass operates independently from your mobile banking platform.
  • The ability to stop online payment fraud in real time for P2P and card transactions

Take a look at next gen MemberPass in action now! Contact Dante Terrana at dterrana@bonifii.com, call or text him at 716-418-6036, or schedule through Calendly.