At Future Identity North America on May 12th, we were joined by Upendra Mardikar, CSO of Snap Finance, Denny Prvu, Global Director of IAM at the Royal Bank of Canada and Elizabeth Garber, Former VP of Digital Products at Santander.

Bringing together a wealth of experience in the financial services sector and a diversity of perspectives across different types of financial institutions, the panel discussed how the future of digital identity is evolving in line with an increasingly digital economy.

As the world around us continues to change, businesses today face many challenges when it comes to authenticating the identity of customers. Upendra explains that for financial institutions, trying to translate the level of trust established in a physical interactions into the omnichannel, digital world is not easy. “Having a good handle on identity is difficult. We are still trying to use knowledge-based authentication and identity in a new world, which is rapidly evolving.”

Denny Prvu also relates to the challenges that outdated physical processes create, but explains that for traditional brick and mortar financial institutions, these processes can be difficult to shake off. “People have technologies and software they are used to. Identity proofing has long been going into a bank branch to shake hands and fill out an application.” Denny explains that today, banks must look not just at who a user is but the context of their behaviour, “Can this user perform this transaction from this certain place, and can they transfer this amount?”

But as Elizabeth Garber highlights, achieving this high level of security and assurance in the context of a transaction, while still providing the right experience for the customer is challenging. “Despite an increased demand for simplicity and ease from customers, the most fundamental need remains to keep them and their assets safe,” Elizabeth says, “Businesses want long relationships with happy customers, and this means investing in technologies which keep pace with threats while removing friction, rather than adding to it.”

To find out more about how this expert panel think financial providers can achieve the right balance between security and experience, watch the full panel discussion below.