Look Who’s Talking: Financial Institutions’ Contact Centers Under Attack
Report Summary
Look Who’s Talking: Financial Institutions’ Contact Centers Under Attack
Contact center fraud will increase unless financial institutions strengthen controls.
Boston, May 1, 2013 – Seventy-four percent of financial institutions state that organized attacks by criminal rings are responsible for the majority of their contact center fraud, according to a research report from Aite Group.
As financial institutions strengthen their online controls, fraudsters are increasingly attacking contact centers as the channel of least resistance. In fact, 79% of executives report that account takeover and social engineering represent the majority of their contact center fraud.
Aite Group interviewed executives at 19 of the top 40 U.S. financial institutions, and the research reveals that contact center losses are often understated or not well understood. This is because FIs often choose dollar thresholds below which they do not investigate fraud losses due to manpower limitations, and some FIs only allocate losses to the contact center in the case of a policy or procedural violation.
Voice biometric solutions have the potential to add value to financial institutions’ contact centers on several fronts: increasing operational efficiency, improving the customer experience via frictionless authentication, and reducing fraud losses through the use of a voiceprint hot file. As an additional layer of security, the technology can help thwart criminals’ efforts to obtain data needed to take over accounts and steal money from innocent consumers. Proactive consumer education will be essential to ensuring that customers understand the benefits of this technology and to preventing the passage of prohibitive legislation.
“Financial institutions want to collaborate to combat organized crime; while voice solutions appear to be a promising preventative measure, interoperability across voice solutions will be required to realize the technology's full potential,” says Shirley Inscoe, senior analyst in retail banking at Aite Group.
This 36-page Impact Report contains 19 figures and three tables. Clients of Aite Group’s retail banking service can download the report.