How to create digital trust

The pandemic has not only changed the way we’re currently living our lives and interacting with one another — it has also changed how credit unions serve their members. Delivering exceptional member experience has traditionally consisted of a combination of four components: convenience, ease of use, personalization, and security. There’s now a fifth — safety.  

Maintaining and continuing an exceptional service experience comes down to one thing: trust. Trust is the foundation of any relationship. Credit unions have been a trusted financial resource for members since their inception—and that has been the key advantage our industry has over banks and FinTechs. It is ingrained in our industry’s creed as not-for-profit, member-owned cooperatives. This is the credit union difference: deeper, more personal member relationships, better rates and lower fees, and always putting members first.

As credit unions expand their digital services, they must once again build a relationship with their members — a trusted relationship that’s digital. Digital trust is earned by instilling member confidence in the ability of the people, technology, and processes your credit union employs to create a secure, private, and reliable digital world. 

Since the increased digital connection between credit unions and their members’ personal devices can generate an increase in cyber and privacy risks, you can count on scammers and fraudsters to be quick to try and exploit our members’ fears and sense of compassion. We’ve already seen the current COVID-19 crisis spawn a spike in online criminal activity. During the first five months of 2020 alone, cyberattacks on the financial services industry have increased by 238 percent, according to a recent study by VMWare.  Spoofing and impersonation attacks in the call center are two of the most common types of fraud that financial institutions and consumers have experienced an increase of during this pandemic. 

If members have digital trust, they won’t feel the need to worry about the possibility of being victims of such fraud, even in times of crisis. Protecting and safeguarding your members’ identity will be the key to developing digital trust with your members. 

Decentralized Identities Equals Trust

A decentralized identity creates a faster, more secure method to confirm a member’s identity because it leverages the combination of these technologies—cryptography, biometrics and distributed ledger technology, which is the most secure way to protect credit unions and their members from identity theft and fraud.  

One of the main member benefits of decentralized identities is that each individual has full control and ownership over their personal information, an identity model known as self-sovereign.  This privacy-enhanced technology also allows members to selectively disclose personal information, protecting them from divulging more information than necessary to conduct business with their credit union.  

The future is quickly moving to self-sovereign identities.  The organization that enables the consumer control over their personal information will enjoy a trusted digital relationship which can last a lifetime.  Your members are counting on you to protect them and being in control of your digital identity can’t come soon enough.  By adopting a KYC-compliant, member-controlled, interoperable digital credential built on the latest in privacy-enhanced technology, your credit union can enhance the digital trust with their members by giving them confidence that their credit union is protecting them and have their best interests at heart—part of what credit unions have done since their inception.

Taking the first step toward creating digital trust between your credit union and your members is easy.  

To learn more about MemberPass and the Digital Trust Registry, send an email requesting a list of FAQs, register to attend a webinar, or visit www.memberpass.com.

CULedger, a credit union service organization, offering MemberPass, the simplest, most secure solution to verify your members through leveraging touchless, privacy-enhancing technology to protect credit unions and their members from identity theft and fraud. Visit www.memberpass.com or email us at sales@memberpass.com.