Protecting assets against fraud and providing a great customer experience are some of the top priorities for banks, amid increased competition in the banking industry. More and more, video surveillance plays an important role in both regards.
Protecting assets against fraud and providing a great customer experience are some of the top priorities for banks, amid increased competition in the banking industry. More and more, video surveillance plays an important role in both regards.
That’s according to
March Networks, which recently announced the results of an independent survey exploring how fraud, customer service and security perceptions are impacting U.S. banking consumer decisions.
Key results from the survey, commissioned by March Networks and conducted by leading market research firm Ipsos, reveal that 15 percent of consumers experienced fraudulent bank account activity in 2016. Yet a lot of banks and credit unions responded successfully, as 85 percent of those consumers said they were satisfied with how their financial institution handled the incident.
According to Dan Cremins, Global Leader of Product Management at March Networks, video can play an important role in helping with the investigation and prosecution after a fraudulent activity takes place. “A video surveillance solution on its own can provide clear evidence of a crime, either in a retail banking branch or at an ATM. Quality video can reveal how the theft happened, (showing a skimming device being installed at an ATM, for example) and provide clear images of faces, license plates and other details to help law enforcement identify – and hopefully arrest – the criminal,” he said. “Many financial institutions use a more advanced video solution to proactively identify suspicious activity and investigate fraud. These intelligent video solutions integrate surveillance video with ATM and teller transaction data, enabling banks and credit unions to spot and investigate fraudulent activity faster and more effectively.”
Further, video now allows users to be more proactive rather than reactive. “Incorporating video analytics such as our Presence Detection adds even more intelligence, enabling the solution to trigger alerts on suspicious behaviors such as someone standing in front of an ATM for an extended period of time without conducting a transaction, which could indicate the installation of a skimming device, or a single customer conducting multiple transactions with different cards, which might be a case of cash harvesting (withdrawing funds from multiple accounts using stolen bank cards),” Cremins said.
Given the usefulness of video surveillance, it is no surprise the survey found 90 percent of consumers said they feel safer when they can see video surveillance cameras in their bank or credit union, and would choose a financial institution with surveillance over one without, all other things being equal. “Video helps make ATM transactions safer and more secure. It serves as a visible deterrent to those who might be assessing different ATM locations for potential skimming or other fraud targets. If there’s a choice between an ATM that obviously has video surveillance and one that does not, the likely target will be the more vulnerable ATM,” Cremins said.
In term of customer experience, the poll shows that a continued focus on customer experience remains critical for banks and credit unions when it comes to retention, with 1 in 5 respondents (and a higher 1 in 4 Millennials) confirming they have switched banks in the past because of poor in-branch service. Nearly half of consumers said waiting more than 5 minutes for service is unreasonable.
Video can play a role here, too, Cremins said. “Dwell time analytics, for example, can reveal how long customers wait in line before being served by a teller. That data can be tracked and compared against other tellers’ wait times or branch-by-branch across the organization, with the added value of video to provide insights into why one teller or banking branch might be underperforming – or excelling – compared to the rest,” he said. “Similarly, an analytic that detects loitering can also help improve customer service. As we saw in the Consumer Banking Habits and Security 2017 survey we commissioned, 50 percent of US banking consumers decided not to conduct a transaction at an ATM because someone was loitering near the machine. Not only does that make for a negative customer experience, it also means that the bank or credit union is losing business it would otherwise receive. Video combined with a loitering analytic can help address this by alerting staff to the potential issue and providing a clear view of the vestibule so they can assess for themselves what the situation is and how best to respond.”