The Changing Face of Risk
As we continue to navigate the uncharted waters of the COVID-19 pandemic, risk is taking on a whole new face for financial institutions. What may have been seen as an average credit application a few weeks ago, now could be considered high-risk, or worse…fraud. And, I don’t expect things to change back very quickly.
Lenders are seeing more traffic than ever in their digital channels, stressing them to the point of turning away otherwise good customers in the name of risk mitigation. These times are tricky, to be sure, but draconian methods of determining good risk from bad risk are not a sustainable long-term solution. Someday, the economy will be back to a sense of normalcy, but lenders and consumers don’t exactly have the luxury to wait. Lenders need to learn and respond today, what can help them now and prepare for brighter days ahead.
Kevin Moss (former Chief Risk Officer of Wells Fargo and SoFi) recently cited in his article, Lessons Learned From the Last Crisis – Part 2,
In times of stress, fraud attempts always increase. When individuals are under stress to pay bills, they stretch their incomes and/or lie about their employment. They may overstate the value of their home or their assets. It is important that you have great tools to help you identify new account fraud (first party, third party and synthetic, which can be either).”
– Kevin Moss
It is important for lenders to have the right strategy in place to effectively segment New Account Fraud. Tools available today can help, but for the most part, these tools rely on data that is out-of-date. The pandemic is highlighting a major gap that has always existed with traditional data, but the current result is paralyzing for some lenders, and can be more like a chasm. Employment, income, and identity verification are all areas of risk that heavily rely on historical data. That information, even only a few weeks old, will provide an inaccurate and out-of-date profile when it comes to fraud and risk.
Understanding the intent of each applicant is the only way to overcome this gap and help identify elevated levels of fraud and risk. Neuro-ID’s Friction Index® Dashboard observes the digital interactions of each applicant and translates them into actionable insight. This provides companies with critical visibility into the current state of their digital customer, to immediately surface high fidelity signals related to fraud, frustration, satisfaction, confidence, and risk. This clear picture of each applicant drives the confidence for FI’s to move ahead with certainty.
Our lightweight JavaScript can be installed in less than a day and immediately unlock a rich new source of behavioral data that is visualized through our Friction Index® to help you see and understand the changing face of fraud and risk. Please contact sales@neuro-id.com and register for a complimentary two-week trial.
