As a user of online banking services, you will likely have to go through numerous steps with passwords and tokens to log-in before being able to access your personal account or do basic transactions. This is a frustrating process that user experience (UX) professionals aim to enhance. UX looks to deliver valuable digital content and functionalities that are effortless for average users while also being intuitive and well designed. However, this is trickier in financial services due to the large amount of regulatory and data security requirements as well as the silo nature of banks and customer behaviours. So can UX and data security co-exist? Thankfully some of the latest Fintech innovations make this possible.
Whilst UX is the priority in many B2C businesses, it is more difficult in the financial service context due to the large number of regulatory and data security requirements. For example, most jurisdictions require two factor authentication – usually something the client knows and something the client has – before someone can access his or her account. This is why such cumbersome passwords or tokens are so common and are put in place in order to protect customers’ sensitive information. It is difficult to improve the customer UX and journey in this framework.
Another practical difficulty is the silo nature of financial institutions. For example, most banks will have security teams whose goal is to ensure the security of the bank, not necessarily the UX of the customers. There is no upside if the UX and customer journey is seamless but they will get fired if there is a security breach. This drives a culture of conservatism and extreme caution to the detriment of customer UX.
The overarching reality also is that consumers will always favor convenience over security. This is especially true as most tools that consumers have got accustomed to using in recent years have enhanced UX (e.g. WhatsApp, Gmail DropBox). At the same time, most of these services are banned in financial institutions for security reasons. Faced with the option of convenience vs security, bank staff as well as consumers will generally opt for convenience. This means that security professionals have to find new ways to offer the same level of security but with enhanced UX; otherwise the risk for financial institutions is that customers will simply not bother using a bank’s highly secure portal due to the poor UX or will ask for a less secure, more convenient option (e.g., sending monthly statements by regular post).
At APrivacy, we have built our data security FinTech offering with this reality in mind. We put the customer and/or end user at the center of what we do and bring enterprise grade security with seamless UX. APrivacy focuses on securing the data rather than the container or perimeter allowing for a native user experience on any platform, any device, anywhere. This means that a bank can send clients their statements on WeChat or share on-boarding documents via DropBox. The financial services industry no longer has to choose between security and convenience to satisfy clients’ expectations and can communicate with their clients on the channel of their choice while meeting all regulatory requirements. Data security and UX can finally cohabitate.
Digital Security Perfected – APrivacy Ltd. is an award-winning company which combines military-grade data security with a seamless user experience on any platform, any device, anywhere. APrivacy Ltd.’s enabling technology now allows the financial services industry to confidently communicate with clients using their favourite channels leading to increased revenues and reduced costs while meeting the strictest regulatory requirements.
