Keeping personal finances on track is one of the most stressful parts of life and financial institutions that can ease this stress for their customers will surely boost their share of wallet.
Here’s how four financial institutions are putting emerging fintech to work to improve customer experience:
Cambridge Savings Bank is testing out interactive teller machines. These machines look like an ATM but provide customers with video conferencing capabilities. Customers can now chat with a teller about accounts without having to wait in the regular line, creating a more streamlined banking experience.
The interactive teller machines would allow extended hours, shorter wait times and quicker transactions.
“It is a great way for customers to come in after work,” said Wayne Patenaude, CEO of Cambridge Savings Bank. “If they need something answered right away, we can make that happen. … We think this kind of technology is the wave of the future.”
Read more here.
Credit Karma sends lenders borrower leads. Earlier this month, they purchased Penny, a chatbot developer created in 2015 to help make finances more streamlined.
Credit Karma plans to use the chatbot technology to improve banking experience for all of its customers. Chatbots, while not great for mundane tasks like checking balances, can be useful for explaining more complex matters, such as loans, in a conversational tone.
Anish Acharya, vice president of product management at Credit Karma, anticipates the easygoing tone of the chatbot will help people feel more comfortable talking about their finances. “A lot of Americans are struggling with their finances. It’s not always the happiest message,” she said.
Read more here.
Semantic Web technologies are used to implement Data Federation, the process of combing data from multiple transactions and OLTP systems for reporting purposes. Semantic Web accesses data from multiple areas and combines it to create consistent information.
Semantic Web can be used to better understand the customer and improve their banking experience. First, define what a customer is; then, create a 360-degree view of the customer and the metrics that are associated with that process.
The data collected is from a variety of sources creating a 360-degree understanding of the customer.
FUZE, a thin device designed to replace your wallet, can store up to 30 credit cards and fit in the palm of your hand. This device, specialized in making the banking experience actually enjoyable, raised nearly $2.5 million in Indiegogo funding for its creation.
FUZE has been drawing in customers with promises of ease and security. However, the security functionality might not be as robust as FUZE would like potential customers to believe. Security researcher Mike Ryan claims he came up with code that can bypass the card’s lock system and once in credit card information can be easily stolen.
FUZE Card allows anyone with physical access to the card to pair with it. The card does not require identity or authentication checks leaving the card open to fraud.
“To exploit this, I wrote some Linux code that emulates the smartphone app performing legitimate actions, such as unlocking the screen and downloading credit card data. The card is unable to distinguish between my malicious attack tools and a legitimate smartphone app, so from its perspective, everything is normal and it will unlock the screen and send the card data,” Ryan said.
Read more here.
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