Balancing Fraud Management with Customer Experience

in High-Value, Complex Service Workflows

Is it possible to simultaneously reduce fraud and improve the customer experience?

Man with a mask

Fraud Prevention Masterclass Series: Introduction & Overview

Regulated firms are constantly challenged to deliver an effective balance between robust anti-fraud procedures and a great customer use experience. This is particularly seen where complex products and services have to be appropriately explained to prospective customers and in turn, interested individuals must be efficiently on-boarded before sales can be completed. The widening knowledge and skills gap between firms provides both new threats and opportunities.

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In response, The Telegraph Group requested Icon UK to work with them to provide independent, specialist consultancy on identity management and process automation specifically to develop this Masterclass series (published in The Telegraph and Business Reporter; now reproduced here), also available as Podcast and eBook summary.

The video-based series, with related multi-media content, focuses on combating the most common fraud sources of compromised data/documentation, misrepresentation and impersonation. When transforming customer workflows with end-to-end automation, we discuss the use cases that this would apply to most commonly during the on-boarding of new clients, including KYC/AML data collection and verification, with the significant implications for subsequent service provision and satisfaction scores thereafter.

Introductory Video - The positioning of this MasterClass series:

Why is this important?

Government and Police statistics show that Fraud and Cybercrime now exceed all other crime put together, with no sign of it diminishing. Fraudsters are increasingly targeting high-value transactions (such as loans, mortgages, investments, etc.) and highly valuable personal information (such as derived from healthcare, legal or employment matters. There is a high degree of financial and reputational risk at stake if organisations don’t recognise this and reduce the risk of fraud. Yet putting up too many obstacles will impact the user experience.

Why hasn’t this been fixed?

Many organisations are struggling with this because it is not a simple fix. Manual processes have been introduced to cope with the combination of: -

Silos of information
Ageing software applications
The complexities of KYC and AML

Whilst the subsequent issues caused are then known, many “digital transformation” projects to improve are no more than piecemeal transitions. These are supposed to be cheaper, quicker and lower risk, but too often are none of these compared to best practice approaches and technologies.

The opportunity

The by-product of reducing fraud usually involves delays due to increased paperwork, staff/partner frustration and impaired customer/user experience. Through the combination and integration of a number of tools fraud can be reduced and simultaneously: -

Minimise the likelihood of reputational and financial risk
Improve Customer experience
Accelerate timescales
Virtually eliminate paperwork and manual processing
Reduce business process costs
Improve compliance and conformance

Video Masterclass series

After the short introduction (above), the videos are divided into four easily digested sections (of less than seven minutes each) and a summary comprising:

Session 1: Online fraud types in high-value transactions: are we doing enough to prevent it?

Session 2: Solutions and Capabilities to prevent digital fraud

Session 3: Fraud incident prevention using video-enabled document & ID management

Session 4: The positive impact of platforms on conversion and retention rates

Summary: The Series Summary and additional links

Each video session is organised with Learning Points and Key Takeaways. By investing a little time, you will quickly assess if you could benefit from finding out more or a deeper engagement.

Where does this fit in the complete customer lifecycle?

KYC and AML are just one stage of a typical customer journey and the solutions discussed here actually encompass the entire customer lifecycle. This passes through at least five distinctly different stages, although the precise ordering of stages and process elements will vary from one use case to another.

L2 Customer Lifecycle v6

The MasterClass discusses importance of integrated technologies that support the entire lifecycle with high automation and seamless yet personalised customer experience.

Not everything goes to plan

Complying with regulatory requirements (e.g. MiFID II, PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication, GDPR, etc.) can too often be time-consuming, inconvenient and expensive when using outdated existing processes. And more customers are not prepared to tolerate service which is slow or perceived as treating their data insecurely. Businesses with old systems comprising many silos of data and process types are being abandoned by the most profitable clients at an increasing rate.

Several German Challenger Banks, and many established French Banks, have found that introducing changes to digital platforms without sufficient design thinking, customer focus or compliance awareness can be detrimental to both reputation and profits. Most organisations benefit from working with external specialist consultants to review and challenge current and future practices. Working with internal teams, they can identify the most appropriate solutions to support future ambitions whilst controlling risk.