Payfone are looking to bring an additional layer of security to mobile banking that doesn't sacrifice convenience. With its partners at Early Warning and four as yet unnamed major US financial institutions (most likely the banks that have invested in Early Warning), Payfone aims to bring its new mobile authentication product to market in the first quarter of 2015.
Payfone's system, called 'Identity Certainty' replicates the success mobile operators have had identifying their customers. It's an invisible system from the user's perspective that takes advantage of monitoring more than 400 "lifecycle" events (change of a address, new phone number etc) and a unique ID for every customer based on phone number, SIM card and an account number.
Payfone CEO, Roger Desai told Mobile Payments Today:
"We eliminate human interaction when it comes to this authentication method. It’s done behind the scenes through the telco’s network.
"Banks have learned that a lot of things that can be done on the PC [for authentication] don’t translate well to the mobile phone. What the banks wanted us to do was create a consistent way to identify a phone."
And, Early Warning's chief technology officer, Aaron Bartrim added:
"Identity Certainty is in the proverbial drinking water, with an always-on, invisible layer of protection that requires no downloads or changes to an individual’s daily behavior."
We're all behind security that does not get in the way of convenience here at Ensygnia. The more secure mobile banking applications become the better it will be for the market, and Payfone's solutions seems like a step in the right direction in the fight against fraud. As we've said before, customers need to be reassured about the security of mobile banking and payments in order to make the switch
12th December 2014
Related stories around the web
Payfone to work with major banks on mobile banking authentication - Mobile Payments Today
Payfone and US banks partner for mobile authentication - FinExtra
Payfone & early warning partner on mobile authentication - Bank Systems & Technology
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