SAN FRANCISCO, 9:30am PDT, September 26, 2006– Javelin Strategy & Research announced today the availability of its Banking Identity Safety Scorecard that rates 24 of the top financial institutions in the country for their ability to prevent, detect and resolve consumer ID theft in partnership with customers. The institutions evaluated collectively possess over 60 percent of the nationwide banking market.
Bank of America received recognition for the highest overall ranking closely followed by JP Morgan Chase and Washington Mutual. Marshall & Ilsley Bank received top honors for prevention – the category with the most weight in the evaluation. JP Morgan also received a category award for detection while Washington Mutual received the category award for resolution. KeyBank received an honorable mention award for its overall strength across all the categories.
Also scoring high in the overall ratings were Fifth Third Bank, SunTrust and Wells Fargo. Javelin Strategy & Research singled-out Citibank for its clearly-stated e-mail policies that make it easier for consumers to avoid phishing. Other providers who scored well in particular important categories were Regions, Navy Federal Credit Union and Wachovia. Awards were presented to the winning institutions on September 25 in San Francisco at the Identify Theft and Fraud Symposium sponsored by American Banker.
Recommendations For Helping Consumers Avoid Identity Fraud
In addition to awarding the top performers in customer identify theft prevention, detection and resolution capabilities, the report also advises the financial industry on very specific actions that will have the most impact on increasing customer safety while strengthening loyalty and service.
“This is the third year of our study, and financial institutions have improved significantly in giving consumers the tools they need to detect fraud on their own,” said James Van Dyke, President of Javelin Strategy& Research. “Prevention is the next area in which financial institutions should focus their efforts; Overall, the industry must accomplish more in this area. We found that financial institutions focus much more on resolving problems after they occur rather than stopping them up front.”
One way to improve prevention, according to the report, is to allow consumers to prohibit certain unusual and risky transactions. Providers can also improve detection by offering the types of alerts that consumers commonly want to receive and that also provide the strongest protection benefits. “We found that consumers are eager to monitor certain types of safety-related information that many financial providers are not yet offering,” Van Dyke said.
The Banking Identity Scorecard Report provided financial institutions with several other tactics that can help consumers avoid identify fraud:
Now in its third year, the report shows how institutions are rapidly evolving to protect their customers from risk, and highlights where they have the greatest need for improvement. The report also extends a clear warning to financial institutions when it comes to regulatory compliance. “With the end-of-the-year deadline looming for FFIEC remote authentication compliance, we found that only one institution has fully implemented a solution,” Van Dyke said. “Financial institutions, as a whole, have not yet taken the necessary steps to conform to the new guidelines. The next few months will be a critical time period as financial institutions need to focus their attention and research efforts on prevention methods to conform to this federal mandate.”
For More Information
For additional recommendations, a copy of the complete Banking Identity Safety Scorecard is available along with other Javelin reports and custom research by visiting www.javelinstrategy.com/2006bankingscorecard/ or by calling (925) 225 9100 x 26.
Javelin is the only provider of nationally-representative research which shows an accurate pattern of identity fraud for all US residents, along with its correlation to known sources of personal data exposure. Data for this study was collected through multiple interactions with each of the institutions over the phone and via the Internet.
Javelin provides independent, action-ready research and strategy consulting focused solely on the financial services and payments industries. Javelin’s research-based guidance factors in the interdependence of consumer and business end-users, financial service providers, payment firms, technology vendors, merchants, billers and other third parties to align opportunity with action. Javelin can be found on the Web at www.javelinstrategy.com.
Media Contact:
Luke Albertalli
Marketing Associate
(925) 225-9100 x26
lukea(AT)javelinstrategy.com
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