Path Through the Jungle

By Richard Gamble

Published in CU Management October 2016, Vol: 39 No. 10, pages 24-25.

The case for offering online and mobile account opening is a strong one, but the process is complex and the stakes are high. How can a diligent CU be sure this important new growth channel is working as advertised?

Online account opening is usually a team sport, with the CU setting the rules and a vendor applying them. The vendor typically receives the application data, searches the relevant databases (such as those for drivers licenses or credit scores), applies rules the CU has set and exports the result to the CU’s systems. That automation has a lot of fast-moving parts that CU staffs can’t actually view, so there’s a degree of faith that the vendor is executing as promised. How much faith is OK is under debate by security and operations pros.

With a good vendor and good systems, having faith is all right, says Alissa Fry-Harris, director of marketing at CUES Supplier member Bluepoint Solutions, Henderson, Nev., which offers OpenAnyware for Credit Unions.

“Best practices and regulations set the standards for authentication, and full compliance is fundamental,” Fry-Harris notes. “Safeguards are built-in because the same highly automated, fully-compliant processes already in use are followed, including out-of-wallet questions, email authentication and gathering of information from multiple sources such as drivers’ licenses, government-issued IDs, credit cards and data from mobile carriers.”

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