Consumers Want FIs Using Advanced ID Methods: Study

Last year brought significant changes in how consumers interact with businesses and consider their identities. This shift caused approximately 83 million consumers to abandon online enrollment due to effort or friction.

The “Second Annual Consumer Digital Identity Study,” from Atlanta-based fraud prevention firm IDology, a GBG company showed three major consumer trends: they consider their identities to be increasingly digital compared to last year; want and value frictionless verification processes, and will abandon account signup if they do not get it.

The survey also revealed the importance of trust has top-line implications for businesses, particularly financial services companies. This year, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumers surveyed (71%) reported that knowing a financial institution was using more advanced identity verification methods would positively affect their decision to do business with that institution.

IDology’s study also found consumers opened more new accounts on mobile phones than on computers; and a 19% increase in abandonment during account openings compared to last year due to high consumer expectations for convenience and low tolerance for friction. In addition, the study also revealed consumers desired higher levels of security without additional burdens.

“To meet consumer demand, businesses must deliver secure, friction-free experiences built around mobile enrollment,” John Dancu, CEO of IDology, said. “This is a challenging balancing act, but the study found businesses that do this successfully and build trust can experience a dramatic increase in enrollment and loyalty. Businesses need to implement smart, multi-layered identity verification technology to improve verification processes and ensure that the customer experience is positive.”

Among the key findings of the Second Annual Consumer Digital Identity Study:

• Sixty million Americans consider their mobile phone number and email a greater part of their identity than where they work or their family information. According to the study, 51% of consumers identified their mobile phone number as a key part of their identity, a 21% increase over last year.
• Americans opened more new accounts online with their mobile devices (61%) than on a computer (56%) in the past twelve months.
• Friction is still one of the biggest barriers between businesses and consumers. The one-click simplicity of the mobile age has conditioned consumers for instant gratification. The study found that in the past year, 83 million Americans abandoned account signup because of friction.

The “Second Annual IDology Consumer Digital Identity Study” reflects survey responses from 1,499 U.S. consumers between January 29, 2019, and February 11, 2019. research firm Qualtrics provided the respondent panel. Online survey respondents were representative of the online U.S. population 18 and older, which equals more than 225 million people.