Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/895093
w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m N o v e m b e r 2 0 17 • I NSIGH T | 29 P H O T O B Y S U Z A N N E W E I S S , S I L V E R L A K E C O L L E G E B y K a t B o o g a a r d I N S I G H T O N F I N A N C I A L S E R V I C E S Risk and reward As tech creates greater convenience, it also creates new opportunities for fraud W hen's the last time you set foot in a physical bank building? For many Americans, that question is surprisingly challenging to answer. With the rise of digital and online banking methods, people need to pay a visit to their friendly neighborhood teller far less frequently than they used to. is increase in electronic financial services is mostly owed to consumers. "We're living in a very 'I want it now' world," Debbie Weyker, vice president of marketing at Bank First National in Manitowoc, says. "Financial institutions have to evolve to meet those needs." With that in mind, it's likely demand for convenience isn't going to slow down anytime soon. "We've been growing our digital service adoption double digits year over year, over year," Brent Tischler, executive vice president and director of retail banking at Associated Bank, says. "We think that mobile banking and digital adoption will continue to grow at an accelerated rate." Many other financial experts agree with that prediction. "Now you see things like different fintech (financial technology) companies partnering up with banks to better understand the regulatory side of things," Kelly Fischer, chief operating officer at Bank First National, says. "Digital certainly isn't going away anytime soon." While this move to online methods provides plenty of convenience and accessibility for consumers, it also presents some unique risks and requirements that the financial industry has had to meet. e biggest one? Security. Cyber criminals and growing security concerns "Before you can talk about risk, I think you need to start with the premise that your identity and all of your credentials are likely out there already," Jeff Olejnik, director of risk advisory services at Wipfli LLP, says of the recent Equifax leak. With the assumption that your identifying information has already been compromised, the world of digital transactions becomes a whole lot more terrifying. As a result, many people are rightfully concerned about how they can protect themselves from threats such as fraud, identity the and other cyber crimes. "Cyber criminals and cyber crime is an industry all on its own," Fischer says. "It continues to constantly seek opportunities to defraud our customers." at idea alone is enough to make consumers nervous. However, rest assured, financial institutions are doing everything they can to mitigate any potential risks their consumers might face. How the financial industry is keeping up Cyber criminals are smart — which means banks continuously challenge themselves to be even smarter by using new measures they can put into place to better protect their consumers. If you've ever had a fraudulent charge on your credit card, for example, you've likely noticed that banks have become much faster when it comes to identifying purchases that are out of the norm. is is owed to improved algorithms, soware and tools that banks use to better learn about their customers. "We have systems that digitally fingerprint you, for lack of a better term," Jon Biskner, vice president of information technology at Nicolet National Bank, says. "ere may be 14 different things that we identify for you as a person. When seven of them all of a sudden don't match, [continued ] » FBI fraud and cybercrimes expert Frank Abagnale speaks with business leaders during a conference at Silver Lake College on protecting customer data and preventing online fraud.