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2FA, WebRTC On the Minds of Banking Industry

By Michelle Amodio
TMCnet Contributor

People are more attached to their mobile devices than ever before. According to the Pew (News - Alert) Research Center, 19 percent of Americans rely on their smartphone to access some form of online services, and the U.S. Federal Reserve says the use of mobile phones to access accounts, credit cards and other financial transactions is now commonplace among U.S. consumers. In a 2013 study, 51 percent of users said they had used mobile banking in the previous year, and that number has continued to climb. As a result, many banks have invested heavily in developing their mobile platforms, much to the benefit of consumers, but security concerns still remain.

According to a Javelin study, security is the number one fear among potential mobile banking customers. But all of these fears are just that; mobile banking relies on many security features, such as 2FA, or two-factor authentication, that can mitigate security breaches. SMS allows users to register with their respective financial institutions, which can then send a code to confirm the identity of the account holder, and are part and parcel to 2FA. Combined, these two forms of security can deny fraudsters access to accounts.

According to Xura, only “16 percent of banks are implementing messaging methods or integrating rich communication software development kits (SDK) as a way to authenticate customers.”

While SMS is one of the biggest parts of 2FA, the technology landscape is changing so much that banks will need to consider forward-thinking technologies, like WebRTC, to expand their services to the current customer.

WebRTC  is an open-source software solution that enables, essentially, more Web site telephony. This would give mobile banking customers the ability to click a button to call from the banking enterprise website or app. These calls are routed to the best person to answer the customer’s question, and unlike 2FA, WebRTC gives the ability for agents to “see” their customers, thus proving, in real time, the identity of the caller.

The quality and speed of handling customer interactions will improve with WebETC because there is more information available about each call. The speed and quality of the interactions will improve when there are less security walls to break through, yet security remains fully intact.

Regardless of how advanced we become in terms of technology and how we bank, it will always be up to financial institutions to protect the identity of the people who choose to bank with them. Mobile engagement is a must for today’s mobile-centric customer, and using 2FA along with SMS and going a step further with newer, more updated technologies, banks will have all the appeal for the savvy modern day banker.