From obligation to opportunity – customer retention 2.0

The new standard requires financial service providers that they lay out appropriate interfaces for other vendors and also provide customer information. The interest to use these and actively integrate them in their own offers, is high among the big players of the digital economy such as Google, Amazon or Apple. But even for smaller Fintech companies or on-line shops, new avenues are being opened up to simplify online purchases and to develop innovative services, for example with respect to the administration of bank accounts. Their digital offer becomes a vehicle that a bank customer allows, for example, to access account balances or the execution of a transaction.

Security aspects and the expansion of the digital offer
A decisive challenge for the banking industry in this context is the clear identification of the person who is allowed to issue this permission. “When third parties, which in turn have access to corresponding customer data, come strongly into play, then the usual combination of customer number and PIN is no longer sufficient to ensure a trustworthy connection between the payment provider and the bank,” says Widmann. “Additional security measures such as two-factor authentication are becoming more and more important against this background: for example, when the customer logs in via a device unknown to the bank.” Here, for example, a numeric code sent by SMS; which the customer must enter when prompted, will guarantee the necessary security in the transaction. In addition to the increased control requirements, banks must rethink their own existing services in the face of new offers that will be thrusted into the market in the course of PSD2. In the context of ever-increasing digitization, the online banking interface in web browsers, as well as classical credit transfers in their current form, could become less relevant. “The PSD2 standard can therefore be described overall as a game changer, which will lead to banks increasingly becoming part of the digital ecosystem – via interfaces that have a decisive influence on the classic day-to-day business and customer contact,” Widmann reports. “To actively use these interfaces themselves and to expand their own digital offerings is what will decide the competitiveness.”

Competitiveness with Customer Identity Management
Without an investment in infrastructure, a bank cannot keep up with digital third-party providers in the long term, the IT consultant is convinced: “Banks requires more information and more knowledge about the customers in order to respond online and also offline with corresponding offers.” There are already out-of-the-box solutions that enable banks to meet the new security requirements as well as meet the demands of a targeted user analysis, such as cidaas from WidasConcepts. In addition to two-factor authentication, it also includes device detection and device management. This means devices that the user interacts with are captured there as well as the actions they take via these interfaces. There’s more: cidaas can be linked to the bank-specific security infrastructure.
Widmann: “The benefits of the out-of-the-box solution for banks are particularly evident from the collected data. It is possible to understand which third parties are involved, how many and what kind of transactions are carried out. From this, the user’s interests and needs can be inferred: a real opportunity to develop services and new products that will continue to bind customers – even then, when he is looking for an in-person consultation in the bank. ”

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