As South Africa’s banking sector embarks upon digital transformation and the shift to branchless banking, cyber security and fraud prevention will have to be top of mind. Indeed, while the race to provide quick and efficient mobile banking solutions is driving innovation, it also creates new opportunities for shrewd cyber criminals and hackers. As it stands, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) reported that in 2018 digital banking fraud across all platforms resulted in over R262 million in losses, with the number of incidents increasing over 75%.

In the face of this challenge, many banks are being forced to rethink their security procedures – while also balancing increasing consumer demand for a mobile and friction-free banking experience. Today, the growing pressure to strike this balance has been driving increasing adoption of biometric technology solutions amongst banks and other financial institutions. Put simply, biometrics refers to the use of technology to identify a person based on some aspect of their biology.

While the use of biometrics used to be limited to governments and high security environments, rapid advancements in the technology – coupled with increasing smartphone penetration – are making biometric solutions ever more attractive (and accessible) for banks looking to digitize their processes. Indeed, by harnessing the sophisticated cameras, sensors and rich applications that smartphones now offer, banks can explore new solutions that meet customer demands for mobile, quick and engaging banking capabilities. 

One such example is remote on-boarding: by using advanced biometric digital authentication technology platforms, savvy banks can now enable new customers to open accounts and begin transacting without having to go into a branch and submit reams of paperwork. This type of capability will arguably become more and more important as banks compete to win market share amongst demanding, digitally savvy young customers. 

‘Liveness’ detection is key

While interest and investment in biometric authentication technology is rising in line with rapid digitization, it is imperative that banks choose robust solutions. When harnessing biometric technology to prevent fraud, the key element is liveness detection: the ability to determine whether the source of a biometric sample is a live human being or a fake representation. Today, many banks and organisations are using gesture-based biometric techniques. This is problematic and represents a security vulnerability because this technology is quite easily spoofed and/or hacked. 

With this in mind, it is critical that banks explore newer and more advanced biometric authentication solutions that have more sophisticated liveness detection capabilities. For example, there are new solutions that leverage facial algorithms and 3-D image detection – thereby achieving accurate proof of liveness with a facial recognition system that is multiple times harder to spoof. 

Balancing innovation with efficient processes  

In addition to choosing a biometric authentication solution that is current and leading edge, banks and organisations have to ensure that implementation is managed correctly. This is key to ensuring that the solution is safe and robust, as well as enabling a smooth end user experience. When harnessing biometric on-boarding solutions in particular, it is critical that the customer experience is as seamless and friction-less as possible – thereby supporting the broader move to efficient, digitised, branchless banking. 

Internally, banks should place strong emphasis on the process flow – which requires having skilled managers in place to guide the integration of new biometric solutions within existing infrastructure. Similarly, banks have to choose their technology partners very carefully, and drive a transparent, highly engaged partnership to ensure that biometrics are integrated in the most agile and efficient way. There is inevitably a great deal of governance, administration and red tape involved in any rollout – so it is imperative that every key stakeholder is engaged and supportive of the integration process.  

Notably, the right technology partner should also advise on the most recent advancements and trends within biometric authentication and fraud prevention that are impacting the global financial services sphere. For example, as customer databases become more important and serve as competitive differentiators, banks should explore blockchain technology as a way of securing highly sensitive biometric data. Looking ahead, biometric databases will need to be impenetrable – and blockchain technology can arguably fulfil this requirement while also supporting ongoing innovation within banking. 

Embracing a future-proof security solution

There is no doubt that the digital race is on: banks are now competing to win the loyalty of increasingly fickle, demanding and digitally native customers. The winners will almost certainly be the banking providers who can effectively balance the need for mobility and convenience with robust security and sophisticated fraud prevention. Today, biometric authentication technology is proving to be one of the most reliable ways of achieving this balance, and will potentially become even more integral to banking security in the years to come. 

VMware, a leading innovator in enterprise software, has released a study into the state of digital workspace technologies which reveals that high growth companies that invest more in the digital employee experience are more likely to achieve business growth, have a progressive culture, retain talent and be rated as a top place to work by their employees.

Two thirds of employees (66%) across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) report that the flexibility of digital tools required for work would influence their decision to apply for or accept a position at a company, with 70% of all respondents saying their current employer should be placing more importance on this.

However, if companies are to reap the rewards of digital workspace technologies, greater collaboration between HR and IT is needed to improve the digital employee experience. Employee education is required to remove ambiguity over who is responsible for providing employees with a positive digital experience, with 49% of employees not knowing if they should approach HR or IT about their experience, and 21% feeling this is another barrier to delivering a positive experience.

In addition, the research demonstrates how surveyed organisations that have higher rates of growth** provide more digital experience factors, that include having access to devices, tools, apps and technology wherever they perform work activities,  to their employees (6, on average), compared to companies that have lower rates of revenue growth (3-4, on average). For example, those that are underperforming/not growing are much less likely to give employees the freedom to work from their personal device (36%),  give access to applications that enable productivity from day one (36%) and provide applications on any device for their most important tasks (excluding email) (47%), compared to those experiencing high growth/hypergrowth (76%, 68% and 93%, respectively).

And while there are different people who respondents see as ultimately responsible for the digital experience, 84% of employees are calling for HR and IT to work better together, particularly given that only 18% of employees report HR and IT collaborate all of the time, with eight in 10 respondents saying HR should be given more responsibility in improving the digital employee experience. 

“Too often, the conversation about digital transformation focuses on the technology and leaves out a key ingredient to a winning strategy – attracting and retaining the best talent,” says Ian Jansen van Rensburg, senior systems engineer at VMware. “To compete for the best talent, companies are prioritising employee experience, which encompasses technology, workstyle and culture.”

Delivering a better digital employee experience also plays a role in workforce sentiment. 

Respondents who say their organisation gives them the ability to work from anywhere as easily as from the office are significantly more likely to say they are proud of their organisation, compared to respondents whose company does not enable the freedom to work from anywhere (72% compared to 27%, respectively). They are also more likely to claim their organisation has a progressive culture (73% vs. 25%), is recognised as one of the top places to work (71% vs. 28%) and provides good work-life balance (70% vs. 28%).

“It’s very important that we give our employees the opportunity to shape their working environment as they see best fit for themselves,” says Dirk Eckert, managing director, Individual Solutions and Products, Deutsche Telekom. “Traditional values influencing how people picked a company as an employer were job security, a good salary and company benefits, but choice of how, where and with what device you can work is becoming increasingly important, especially for young people.”

A third of respondents who say that there are challenges to delivering the optimum digital experience cite a lack of understanding of what employees want as the biggest obstacle, followed by it not being considered a business priority (20%). Almost two thirds (61%) of employees feel like they don’t even have a voice when it comes to the tools they can use at work, despite 83% of ITDMs believing they do give employees a voice in this area.

Says Jansen van Rensburg: “Leaders committed to improving employee experience are adopting the digital workspace, a concept VMware pioneered three years ago. A digital workspace platform fuels modern digital experiences, which is critically important to current and prospective employees as well as improving other key business outcomes.”

Jean Pierre Brulard, senior vice president and EMEA general manager, VMware, says: “The key to any company’s success is its human capital. It allows them to innovate, execute and lead in the marketplace. But as talented employees find more adaptable job options that are amenable to their lifestyles and career goals, employers have no choice but to compete harder than ever to attract and retain them.” 

About the research

*In March and April 2019, 3,600 EMEA employees (1,800), IT decision makers (900) and HR decision makers (900) who use computer/smart devices for work purposes were interviewed. The number of respondents from each EMEA country were: UK (600), Germany (600), France (600), Italy (200), Netherlands (200), Russia (200), Poland (200), Norway (200), Sweden (200), Spain (200), UAE (200) and Saudi Arabia (200). They were from organisations in a range of public and private sectors and their organisation had to have an employee size of 500 employees or more.

**Companies cited as experiencing high growth/hypergrowth YoY on average have 6.3 digital employee experience factors out of ten, compared to 3.7 factors in companies not experiencing growth.