Credit Unions Must Factor in Multi-Factor Authentication in the Fight Against Fraud

While financial crime has been around since the dawn of time, a recent rise in the prevalence of sophisticated financial fraud is hitting the industry hard. Credit unions have increasingly become a top target for fraudsters due to the amount of personal information they require from their members (Social Security numbers, home addresses, etc.). Especially during the holidays and at times when more transactions are taking place, what’s a credit union to do to ward off would-be grinches? Multi-factor authentication (MFA) – the login technology that requires users to prove who they are from more than just a username and password – began widely rolling out to banks in the 2000s. Like most technologies, MFA (formerly “two-factor authentication”) took time to catch on. Now it is the standard, trusted method to protect against increasingly sophisticated threats. Using modern, secure authentication tools – including Text, Video calling, and Real-time photo ID verification – to stay ahead of fraudsters, members of community financial institutions (CFIs) can not only access their accounts, but also know who is reaching out to them. “The key for credit unions is to blend commonly used technologies into the strength of multi-factor authentication tools,” said Ashish Garg, Founder and CEO of Eltropy. “When you have that right blend – Text, Video calling, and Real-time photo ID identification — whether you’re running a call center or integrating with your core banking system, a credit union achieves peace of mind knowing they have a broad digital and in-branch communications strategy that’s not going to break nor disrupt their current environment.”