Mobile Authentication in Small Business Banking

Driven by security concerns around the mobile platform, mobile banking adoption among micro/small businesses remains low, but that is expected to change. As financial institutions add progressively more functionality to mobile platforms and businesses migrate to mobile, security against fraud must increase accordingly. Authentication measures uniquely suited to mobile devices such as biometrics, device fingerprinting, mobile location, and in-app authentication can provide protection against current and developing fraud schemes such as mobile remote-access Trojans and business email compromise. Since business accountholders lack the liability protections consumers have, offering strong mobile authentication is crucial to financial institutions in both preventing their customers from suffering fraud losses and in providing FIs reasonable security measures under the Uniform Commercial Code for protection against litigation. With many small-business fraud victims turning to legal action against their FI in attempts to recover fraud losses, preventing losses and protecting themselves from liability is incredibly important for FIs serving small businesses.

Key questions discussed in this report: 

• What unique challenges face mobile authentication for small-business banking?
• What are the best practices for authenticating small businesses in the mobile channel?
• How is the growth of mobile banking affecting the security of small-business finances?
• How are small businesses adopting mobile authentication measures?
• What changes need to occur in small-business mobile authentication to combat emerging fraud trends?
• How do bring-your-own-device policies affect small-business security?
• How does mobile banking affect legal liability precedents for business-related payments fraud?

Companies Mentioned: Apple, Comerica Bank, Payfone, People's United Bank, PNC, Samsung

The data used in this report come from online survey responses from 1,000 business payment decision-makers and influencers. Survey respondents worked for companies in 1 of 4 segments: micro business ($100,000 to under $1 million in annual revenue); small business ($1MM to under $10MM in annual revenue); lower-end middle-market ($10MM to under $100MM in annual revenue); and large middle-market ($100MM to $500MM in annual revenue).