• Derek Corcoran , CXO at Avoka


• 07.12.2017 03:19 pm

This time Derek Corcoran, Avoka’s CXO, shared with Financial IT the best practices for sales and service transactions, such as credit card applications, loan origination, account opening, and government license applications.  As well as, forecasted future FinTech trends at MoneyLive 2017.

What is the most vital topic at MoneyLive this year and what are you showcasing today?

The Open Banking looks very interesting, as it is going to give the access to all the necessary information today and what you do with it. As for Evoka, our product is so far represents a platform that banks use to build account opening or loan application types of experiences. So as a part of that process we need to do KYC to ensure it’s not a fraudulent account or it’s not a money laundering. At this point, banks need to demonstrate that they have sufficiently verified the identity of a customer, as the customers are not coming to the branch and it’s all been conducted digitally.

For instance, so far I’m opening an account with Barclays and I already bank with Lloyds, I can actually use my Lloyds information to inform Barclays, which gives them a high level of confidence that they know who I am. Moreover, it also streamlines the process, because the abandonment rights for account opening in retail banking typically accounts for around 70%. It means that for every hundred customers clicking “apply” for opening a bank account only 30% actually complete the process, due to the time consuming procedures. Thus, open data initiative and the analysis of the data allows us sharing the information I already have. For example, I already have an account with Lloyds and I’ll use my credentials to log in to that account and then Barclays through the APIs could control that information. Now I know more about you, so it makes the process easier, as well as it helps us reduce the abandonment right.  

What are the issues and challenges you are facing, while providing this solution and how do you address them?

Honestly, the biggest issue for the Avoka is letting people know that we actually exist. And the event like this is a great opportunity to raise awareness of who we are and what we do, and most importantly what problems we can solve. One of the biggest challenges that we have faced so far is the data breach. Specifically, the information a bank typically uses to verify somebody’s identity (name, address, birth date and etc.) might be viewed or stolen by unauthorized individuals. As a result, banks are looking for additional mechanisms to verify identities so the open data could be connected with other banks to help a new bank to have a confidence to know who I am.

The other area that we currently working on is mobile part, if I have a phone in my possession, we can verify whether my name and my address matches the mobile operator’s billing details. As well as, whether that device is physically in my hands or leveraging biometrics in that device to verify who I am, something like my fingerprint or my face recognition.

All of these helps to build confidence for banks so they can open the bank accounts for a new customer, without adding additional friction to the application process. Once we have a friction, we lose a customer and if we tell them that they have to go to the branch, there is a really great chance that they won’t do this. Consequently, we are trying to help them acquire more customers through packaging off those services through open data, mobile carrier, and biometrics. When you pull all of that together, you create a nice experience that becomes easier for the customer and at the same time it does not expose the bank to additional risk or potential fraud.

What makes Avoka unique compared to other solutions?

We are the only solution in the market that combines four elements that are typically very important for banks.  First of all, we give them control of design and a local feel. Normally, our clients are very large institutions and they want to make sure that it looks like their brand. They don’t want just to tell what their application experience should look like but they want to own it.Furthermore, we assembly integrations to a lot of FinTech and data service providers. We make it easy for the banks to combine multiple services from different providers in order to create that best possible experience.

The third thing we do is we’ve got that transaction-processing engine that humbles the data, until it’s ready to be delivered to its core banking system. For example, if husband and wife are applying, we’ll save the application, so they can share it between them and we’ll handle the information separately from the core banking system. The system of engagement gives a bank a lot of flexibility and agility.

And the final piece is the analytics that we generate between our products. We collect the information where they drop or where they end, whether they get to a particular field or they leave the application flow. Having the analytics allows the bank to understand consumer behavior, detecting particular problems, and bottlenecks. It allows to continuously improving the onboarding process. Our clients use our products to better understand consumer behavior so that they can customize the experience and make it as easy as possible without compromising any risk.

What are the trends and enhancements that we should expect in FinTech industry? What is the forecast for the next year?

I think there are so many. First, we are going to see how regulatory changes impact the way banks do business, and how they respond to the changes. Mobile growth also has been incredible. We do a lot of businesses in the US, and around April 2017 mobile overtook desktop, which has become a primary device, customers are using to open bank accounts. Mobile devices became a sales tool for banks. We believe that mobile phone has been historically focused on app experiences. There is nothing I can do in a branch that I can do with a phone. I can open accounts, phone, deposit checks, and so on. We are trying to make those experiences browser friendly, so you don’t have to download the app. You can do a lot of these transactions just in your phone’s browser, turning it into a seamless experience. I think the third area we are concentrating at the moment is data breach that has become such a hot topic in 2017. While it creates a risk, it also creates an opportunity to look for alternative data sources. Things like the camera on the device can be used as a photograph or identity tool that streamlines the application process, which can minimize the chances of fraud. We introduce services like photo ID capture to verify whether this device has been used for fraudulent transactions previously. Use of those additional services minimizes the impact of the data breaches that is a huge opportunity for growth.