By Renee Tarun, deputy CISO, Fortinet

In a recent Ernst & Young report, only 17% of respondents say they trust the activities of financial institutions in a time of crisis. At the same time, the average customer attrition rate among retail banks per year hovers around 15%, and about half of the customers who churn don’t make it past the first 90 days after opening their accounts. On top of this, there is more competition for banks than ever before thanks to the rise of newer fintech companies and technologies.

Gaining and retaining new customers is built on trust. Not only are banks stewards of customers’ savings and investments but also of their critical assets, such as their personal identifiable information (PII). Understandably, then, security plays a pivotal role in maintaining trust through safeguarding banks’ customer-first strategies. Read on for insight into how financial services institutions can stay secure amid a rapidly evolving threat landscape and how they can maintain customer trust.

Technology’s role in establishing trust

In banking, it’s hard to gain customer trust and easy to lose it, which makes it difficult for financial institutions to acquire and retain customers. Churn remains an issue. To build and maintain trust with their customers, banks must use all available resources: their culture, process and technology. Banks must be transparent, have good governance and use ethical business practices. Trust is also built by investing in the most effective technologies and processes. Banks can build trust by demonstrating resilience in these areas.

Trust is a key component of technology because if it fails to work or isn’t innovative enough, customers have a negative experience. They can lose trust if the website of a bank goes down or the company is breached by hackers. Technology that you don’t notice is good technology because it’s doing its job.

Looking at the threat landscape

Security is an essential part of that good technology you don’t notice because it’s working. Your customers will certainly notice when you have to, for instance, send them an email letting them know their account was potentially compromised or that your online banking services are down due to a ransomware attack.

Banks and the financial services industry certainly have their work cut out for them. Given all the personal information they hold, they remain a major target for cybercriminals, whose methodologies continue to become more aggressive and more sophisticated all the time.

Recent research from FortiGuard Labs found that cybercriminals are developing attacks faster than ever. They’re continuing to exploit the expanded attack surface and are using advanced cybercrime strategies that are more destructive and less predictable than those in the past. And they are using a variety of new and previously seen ransomware strains.

Bolstering your security structure

A solid foundation is essential for building trust and a customer-centric banking strategy. A security-by-design approach can be a strategic investment in the current market. It will bring the best value for the money and help banks stay competitive. This means that security should be integrated at the start of any business initiative.

Banks will reap the greatest value from working with a security provider that aligns with their core strategies and values. This means choosing a partner that has a holistic approach to security that includes the above-mentioned three areas of people, technology and processes. Banks should shortlist providers with a cybersecurity mesh platform that provides consistent security across their ecosystem. This includes key capabilities such as automation and integration. It also has at its core AI-driven threat intelligence. Banks can do the following with such a security partner:

• Make sure that their people are cyber-hygiene educated and security aware.
• Increase resilience by implementing processes that ensure customer information and critical assets are protected. If a problem occurs, the bank can ensure that critical services and systems continue to function.
• Communicate security risks to customers and provide information on how to protect themselves.

Security builds trust

It used to be said that business happens at the speed of trust. These days, trust is a currency that enables business to happen. The financial industry has the difficult task of remaining ever-vigilant against reputational, customer service and security incidents that would break trust with customers. The last category carries the greatest responsibility, as not only customers’ financial lives are at risk but their personal information as well; once lost, it can never be truly secure again.

Financial services institutions remain a prime target for attackers, and the threat landscape continues to surface new and innovative attack methods as the latest FortiGuard Labs threat report exemplifies. That’s why they must also think in innovative ways about their security structure, implementing a mesh approach that provides the visibility and threat intelligence they need to keep their assets safe and maintain customer trust.

About the author:

Renee Tarun is deputy CISO at Fortinet. She is focused on enterprise security, compliance and governance, and product security. She is also a contributor to the book, The Digital Big Bang. Previously, she served for over 20 years with the U.S. government, with over 12 years as a cybersecurity leader for the National Security Agency (NSA). Renee received her master’s degree in computer/information technology administration and management from the University of Maryland University College. She is also a board member for the George Mason University Volgenau School of Engineering. She is married with two children.