Author: Signzian

Cryptocurrencies

How Will Cryptocurrencies affect Fintech?

Posted on | by Signzian

In 2020 the world cryptocurrencies and blockchain market was estimated to be $1.49 billion. By 2030, it is expected to reach $4.94 billion, growing at a 12.8% CAGR from 2021 to 2030. Even with the current wavering scenarios, it is clear that they have an upward trajectory in the long run. Although cryptocurrencies haven’t achieved absolute consumer acceptance yet, there is little doubt that they will form an integral part of the financial ecosystem in the future.

Fintechs will likely be well impacted by multiple cryptocurrency availability and its adoption growth. Below we elaborate on how cryptocurrency, blockchain’s future, and the fintech industry are increasingly intertwined.

Decrypting Crypto

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies not issued or regulated by any central authority, such as a federal or state government. Instead, they are generally stored in a more decentralized fashion. Some of these currencies, like Facebook’s Libra, are initially meant to be centralized, with long-term plans to be decentralized.

When a cryptocurrency is specifically decentralized (for example- Bitcoin), transactions are verified with the use of blockchain technology. Blockchain is a well-distributed, decentralized, accessible public ledger. In other words, it’s a public database of relevant digital information. Furthermore, the use of blockchain technology is a vitally secure mode of storing data as it is virtually near impossible to manipulate without significant detection.

Thus, cryptocurrencies are very secure virtual currencies with decentralized nature. As a result, they are not subject to government interference or regulation, as with traditional currencies.

Newer Fintech Industry Horizons With Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are not well understood by the regular banking consumer residing in a country with a stabilized main currency. Therefore, unless the consumers are early adopters, they don’t have much incentive to primarily adopt crypto over the regular options and may even see the digital currencies as too risky.

However, cryptocurrencies are significantly more popular and have extensive adoption rates in regions of the world with multiple unstable currencies. A good example was when the bolivar experienced swift devaluation in Venezuela; many cryptocurrencies gained considerable access as a more stable and reliable option.

Cryptocurrencies are also specifically relevant to nearly 1 billion people across the globe. These people have mobile devices but may not have bank accounts. Being “unbanked,” they can’t use conventional financial products. But they can use those built on selected cryptocurrencies.

In both these cases, cryptocurrencies help open up newer markets where Fintechs find consumers who benefit from their products.

Better Money Transfers With Cryptocurrencies

One of the fintech consumers’ biggest complaints with conventional financial companies is the excruciatingly sluggish pace of transaction approval caused by the many layers of bureaucracy such approvals usually entail. Anyone who has tried to transfer money from one bank to another across borders is undoubtedly acquainted with how tiresome the process can be. Even transferring money between institutions in the same country is often riddled with delays and inefficiencies.

Because they are created on secure and decentralized public ledgers, cryptocurrencies can be taken back and forth much more swiftly than traditional currencies. This has the extra effect of considerably reducing transaction costs.

Transparency, speed, and convenience -are the cornerstones of any Fintech innovation, and cryptocurrencies are part of what makes it possible to create solutions based on the same principles.

Cryptocurrencies To Reduce Financial Fraud

Even as disruptors Fintechs face the exact issues around identity theft, fraud, and money laundering as any legacy financial company does, thwarting such hurdles is time-consuming, challenging, and labor intensive.

Because cryptocurrencies are created on distributed and decentralized ledgers, their specific transaction records are verified easily. Furthermore, provided the secure nature and use of blockchain technology, these particular records cannot be particularly manipulated or obscured, rendering fraud prevention a much less costly and tedious enterprise for Fintechs.

Fintech innovation has been an impactful disruptive force in the financial technology industry. Over the past decade, financial services and products have changed dramatically as Fintech solutions have offered consumers more appealing alternatives to traditional products.

Newer Paths In The Fintech Industry

In decades to come, cryptocurrencies will play a more significant role in forming emerging Fintech innovations by unlocking novel markets and supporting efficiency and convenience in all product offerings. However, it’s not just crypto that will transform the industry. Considering the rate at which innovation occurs in the fintech space, financial companies require the best products and services for their customers. It is vital to ensure that the customer is welcomed with a convenient yet secure onboarding experience. Check out Signzy’s AI-driven state-of-the-art customizable no-code resources to see what fits your needs.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com.

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

 

Data Fabric To Weave Safer Financial Technology- How It Can Be Used To Improve Financial Services

Posted on | by Signzian

The excellent offerings of fintech firms derive from the creativity of startup founders and the people they drive to work for their companies, who have changed the financial technology industry as we know it. These innovators see everything possible and let their imaginations run wild when crafting ways to enhance our digital interactions. As a result of this dynamism, some fintech startups have achieved incredible success.

Conventional banks are catching up with newer fintech companies by providing fintech-like experiences and innovative new products. Perhaps these banks are inspired or threatened by what they see in the fintech industry. But, regardless of their drive and motivations, they are increasingly willing to up their game to the plate and compete with novel fintech offerings. This is because fintech and multiple banks — at least those that want to be around in the future — clearly understand that state-of-the-art technology is vital to remain competitive in the sector.

Thus, banks, other financial institutions, and fintech companies deploy new technology to meet their implied promise to customers that if the customers come to them, they will get better services, offerings, and products. This is how AI-artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, big data, and data science have entered the finance industry. Therefore, financial institutions should obtain as much data as possible to use this technology and provide a competitive service and good user experience without compromising data privacy.

The Fundamental Requirement In Financial Technology

This fundamentally requires financial institutions(FIs) to consider the regulatory constraints on data access and use. A further challenge is that, while many companies might be great at collecting mass and personal data, they may actually have difficulties uncovering actionable insights that could help them provide better banking offerings and customer experiences. It certainly does not help that more extensive and older financial companies deal with data silos, legacy systems, and unstructured data. And then, there is the big baddie of cyber security, which leads many executives to hold back when developing new strategies for collecting and using customer data.

Data is the new oil. It’s precious, but they can not use it if it is unrefined. It has to be transformed into gas, plastic, chemicals, etc., to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity, so all data(even personal data) must be broken down and analyzed to generate value.

Many would agree with this analogy. But unfortunately, companies have difficulty truly managing the vast amount of data and information available in our technologically networking world. This data is stored in various formats and places, making it challenging to fully utilize its power and potential. In addition, this data is increasing exponentially due to the digital footprint that all the customers leave on all the available online services they use.

Data Fabric- Handling The Issue Of Mass And Personal Data In Financial Technology

The problem is that we have too much data. This is precisely where data fabric will help companies. The data fabric’s value is that it enables improved insights because it provides access to more data from an extensive pool of varied and distributed data sources. This is on-premises or in public clouds that businesses usually use and identifies the specific relationships between data to provide better context. In addition, the data fabric ensures proper data governance, which is vital when scaling the utilization of data for analytics and AI.

This ensures proper data governance and allows companies to implement a winning technology strategy. In addition, a data fabric architecture will enable companies to utilize a hybrid and a mixture of multiple clouds, allowing portability in data storage and applications. For instance, IBM’s definition of a hybrid cloud includes on-prem data stores and applications, not necessarily just an on-prem private cloud.

Despite the challenges and hurdles posed by an excess of data, numerous players in the financial technology sphere are moving in the right direction, seeking to overcome the significant obstacles that come with the increased implementation of artificial intelligence and customer demands for personalization. Data fabric addresses multiple issues companies face in their attempts to better and update their technology strategies. Furthermore, it helps institutions comply with strict privacy regulations while using customer data.

Taking It A Step Further

In financial technology services, tech-savvy users long for personalized offerings that consider their financial history and present financial situation to give solutions based on the current requirements and anticipate future needs. To meet this requirement, companies need many data points to make sense of the vast amount of data collected from their customers and give them comprehensive solutions.

If a company knows its customers better and designs solutions based on this knowledge, there will be benefits for the customer and the company.

Many would wish financial companies to take their sophisticated pasts and presents into account to provide them with a more “humanized” banking experience, regardless of the growing use of technology required to reach this.

Faster extraction of the insights is a value of a data fabric; the embedded capability of governance ensures that appropriate data privacy and security is maintained — this is especially critical in the FSS industry. Also, data does not have to be moved and can stay secure at its source per the comment above is essential for highly regulated industries such as Financial Services.

Suppose a company is not up to speed with the better, richer insights gained from properly implementing a data fabric architecture. In that case, it will likely lose out to its competitors. The primary reason is that the customers may move to newer banking providers whose financial solutions are better matched to their current life situation and seamlessly adapt to their future needs.

Racing The Race With Data Fabric

The race is becoming increasingly tense — within the crowded space of new financial competitors, ranging from fintech startups and banks to non-financial companies taking advantage of this embedded-finance trend.

For the future victors in the financial sphere, the right data fabric strategy is not merely an option but a necessity. 

Any such form of revamping or upgrading in any organization, done alone, is not smart. It’s always better to see how experienced experts can help you out. Signzy holds a plethora of resources that can improve your processes to a greater extent. With our AI-driven products and services, you can make things better.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

KYC And Cybersecurity: Protecting Data From Cyber Fraud

Posted on | by Signzian

Traditionally, cyberthreats have been largely isolated to attacks on computer systems and networks. However, with the advent of digital transformation, cyberattacks are now targeting people and businesses at an unprecedented rate.

According to a report from Accenture’s State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2021, cyber threats have increased by over 30% from 2020 to 2021. Cyber fraud is fast becoming one of the biggest threats to today’s businesses, with the cost of cybercrime predicted to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025.

KYC And Cyber Fraud

KYC fraud occurs when a cybercriminal uses stolen or fake identity documents to open an account or obtain credit in someone else’s name. This type of fraud can have devastating consequences for both the individual and the business involved.

Fraudsters can trap customers easily by offering services that are too good to be true or by using phishing techniques to obtain sensitive information such as login credentials or financial data. Once they have this information, they can use it to commit identity theft, take out loans in the victim’s name, or make unauthorized purchases.

Types Of KYC Frauds

  • Phishing: Phishing is one of the most common types of cyberattacks. It involves fraudsters masquerading as legitimate entities in order to trick victims into divulging sensitive information.
  • Identity Theft: Identity theft occurs when a criminal obtains and uses someone else’s personal information, including their name and address, to take out loans, make purchases, or apply for credit.
  • Smishing: Smishing is a type of social engineering fraud that involves sending phishing text messages to unsuspecting recipients. This technique can be used to trick people into revealing their login credentials, banking details, or other sensitive information.
  • Fake Re-KYC: Fake re-KYC scams are becoming increasingly common as businesses are required to update their customer records on a regular basis. In this type of fraud, fraudsters pose as representatives from a legitimate organization and request that customers provide updated KYC information, such as their passport or driver’s licence details.

KYC Data Breach

Despite the importance of KYC in cybersecurity, data breaches are still a very real threat. Recent instances of KYC data breaches include the CDSL’s KYC arm which reportedly exposed the personal and financial data of more than 40 million investors twice within just 10 days.

Additionally, the Upstox data breach exposed the personal data of about 2.5 million customers, leading to a probe by the RBI’s cybersecurity team. To protect the data from cyber fraud and cyberattacks, it is important to implement robust KYC procedures and invest in state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools and systems.

Following the incident, Ravi Kumar – the co-founder and CEO of Upstox (India’s largest brokerage firm), stated on the company’s website: “We would like to assure you that your funds and securities are protected and remain safe. Funds can only be moved to your linked bank accounts and your securities are held with the relevant depositories. As a matter of abundant caution, we have also initiated a secure password reset via OTP.” 

KYC And Cybersecurity

Know Your Customer (KYC) has become a vital part of any business’ cybersecurity strategy, as it helps to weed out potential cyber fraudsters and protect customer data. Consumers are vital stakeholders in any cybersecurity strategy, and businesses must take steps to help them protect their personal information online.

There are many KYC best practices that businesses can implement to help protect themselves from cyberattacks, including:

  • Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • Conducting regular background checks on employees
  • Keeping up-to-date with the latest security threats
  • Educating employees on cybersecurity risks
  • Implementing strong password policies
  • Monitoring employee activity for suspicious behavior
  • Restricting access to sensitive data
  • Encrypting customer data
  • Backing up

Gaining Trust Of All Stakeholders

According to research, 88% of the customers say that their trust in any business is based on how they handle their data and offer security.

Anil Advani, from Pure VPN, believes that cybersecurity is the means to gain the trust of customers and stakeholders alike. By implementing strong KYC policies and best practices, businesses can help protect their customers from the growing threat of cyber fraud and data breaches.

He quotes, “Due diligence is a routine part of any acquisition. Identity verification is very important these days due to an increase in cybercrime. Customers, partners, shareholders, and prospective employees want evidence that the organization can protect its sensitive data. Without a cybersecurity policy, an organization may not be able to provide such evidence.”

Pairing Cybersecurity With Regulatory Requirements

Dan Blum, Principal Consultant at Security Architects Partner, believes that businesses must pair their cybersecurity efforts with regulatory requirements to be fully compliant.

“Service providers must protect the value of customer’s information systems or data, as well as customer privacy rights using sound, risk-based cybersecurity practices as a matter of due diligence. KYC requirements must be aligned and balanced with a good understanding of the laws and business requirements,” he stated.

He believes that organizations should also consider conducting independent security audits regularly to identify potential vulnerabilities. These audits can help organizations understand where they need to improve their cybersecurity posture and make the necessary changes to mitigate risk.

The Bottomline

In conclusion, as data breaches continue to plague businesses of all sizes, it is more important than ever for organizations to implement robust KYC procedures and invest in state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools and systems. By following the best practices outlined above, businesses can help protect their customers’ personal information online and gain the trust of all stakeholders.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Exploratory Data Analytics To Fight Financial Crime- How To Effectively Prevent Fraud In The Fintech Industry

Posted on | by Signzian

Combating global financial criminal activity, from money laundering and market misconduct to sanctions, terrorist financing, bribery, and corruption, costs an estimated US$1.3 trillion annually, according to a 2018 Refinitiv Survey. Moreover, with global regulators imposing nearly US$26 billion in fines in the last decade for non-compliance with AML(Anti-Money Laundering), Online KYC(Know Your Customer), and Sanctions regulations, there is a material need for change. Exploratory data analytics can bring this about

Governments and regulators put financial companies on the front line to fight against financial crime with increasingly rigorous compliance requirements. However, trade institutions are finding it challenging to meet these expectations due to legacy technologies and manual processes that no longer keep up with the vast volumes of information produced and the complexity of the global banking ecosystem.

Banks innovating and adopting new technologies and techniques to address regulatory compliance demands will be industry leaders in the years to come. 

Time To Evolve The Fintech Industry With Exploratory Data Analytics

Conventionally financial companies have relied heavily on manual, human intervention in the regulatory reporting process. This remains the common practice today, particularly in the case management workflow. For example, several case investigators review details and write disposition narratives physically before suspicious activities and other compliance issues are reported to them.

However, with the flow of information in and out of banking systems, humans can’t keep pace with demand. As a result, risk alert backlogs are growing faster than operations teams can handle, more often than not. We can use advanced and exploratory data analytics techniques such as AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and cognitive automation to accelerate or automate a significant portion of the labor-intensive work. This reduces operational costs and leaves people free to focus on preventative interventions.

As well as decreasing operational workloads in case management, compliance teams also leverage advanced analytics in many preventative financial crime use cases, including enriching the KYC process, enhancing sanctions screening performance, and monitoring transactional activity, helping to identify risks and opportunities proactively.

Machine learning models accelerate the closure of a risk alert backlog and have a higher degree of accuracy. 

Innovation- Solution to Legacy Issues Using Exploratory Data Analysis

Following are the three examples of opportunities for financial companies and banks to use innovative and exploratory data analytics methods and technologies to improve regulatory compliance, enhance customer experience and lower the cost of operational risk management.

Transaction Monitoring (TM)

In Anti-Money Laundering, ML models enrich transaction monitoring alerts and boost SMR(Suspicious Matter Report) conversion rates – and predict AML scenarios before they occur. In addition, enrichment adds potentially essential details about the customers, beneficiaries, or accounts associated with the respective alert, such as:

  • Using previous cases, SMRs or TTR(Transaction Threshold Reports)
  • Existing scoring processes that assess the potential risk of a transaction, customers, series of transactions, or accounts
  • External information such as subpoenas, law enforcement inquiries, or negative news

Machine learning models detect “true positive” results with improved accuracy than traditional methods and even predict significant events before they occur.

Online KYC– Know Your Customer

Organizations must collect, manage, verify, and validate customer data for KYC checks and compliance to implement the required due diligence and permit apt customer risk assessments or investigations. However, building a comprehensive ‘single view of the customer’ spanning various source systems and multiple digital interactions has been a challenge for financial companies.

KYC checks and verification have traditionally been manual and inefficient processes, often combined with critical data gaps, errors, and quality issues. However, it’s possible to achieve a better perspective of the customer, enhance the data used to implement due diligence, and provide a contextual basis for determining customer risk and detecting suspicious activity by augmenting human activity with machine learning techniques. So now we can use Online KYC.

Analytics also enables customer segmentation and productive profiling for various business purposes, including compliance and marketing. For example, compliance teams could use customer profiles for risk assessments or investigations. Likewise, enterprises or marketing teams could use this data to create personalized banking offers based on customer preferences.

Effective Sanctions Screening

The performance of screening engines is under pressure due to rapidly altering and increasing regulatory demand. Unfortunately, this is accompanied by the fact that the risk detection capacity of existing systems is unable to keep up. As a result, a typical symptom of inefficient screening is an ever-growing backlog of screening alerts and unsustainable levels of false positives, directly impacting operational costs.

At the core of effective screening, the solution is an uplift of the completeness and the screening engine ingesting the data’s accuracy. Therefore, calibrating the matching and filtering performance of this effective screening engine needs the data to be of high quality, complete, and ultimately resulting in a boost in true positives detection rates and operational efficiency.

In addition to ensuring the screening, the engine is fully operating at peak performance; emerging AI and other analytical assistive options can also be used to address operational efficiency issues related to a particular case investigation.

Machine learning techniques can be combined with predictive calculations based on historical investigator decisions to substantially reduce the number of alerts to be safely dispositioned. In addition, the effort and cost involved are reduced by building processes that result in complete and accurate data and properly optimizing the engine to avoid false positives.

An intelligence-led and data-driven Fight In The Fintech Industry

Financial companies are being challenged internally and externally to keep up with the onerous demands of mitigating financial crime risks. Organizations are finding innovative ways to address issues surrounding SMR conversion rates, KYC due diligence, and screening alert management.

Banks have an increased appetite to go beyond simply flagging suspicious and illegal activities for compliance purposes. The aim is to leverage data and effective technology to cost-effectively identify potential criminal behavior and prevent illegal activities from occurring. Complete and accurate data is vital to resolve these issues, and the uplift of data quality will immediately affect the existing monitoring and screening engines’ performance.

Conclusion

Advanced analytics, such as AI, machine learning, and automation, can help filter out false positives and improve inefficiencies in existing investigative processes. As a result, there are many opportunities for data and analytics to drive efficiencies and operational cost reductions and, more importantly, to identify intelligence-led and data-driven ways to tackle financial crime.

For all of this, you need the best resources you can get. We at Signzy identify your needs and help you forge the solutions using our AI-driven API resources, which are completely customizable. Check out our website to learn more.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Top Security Trends In FinTech For 2022

Posted on | by Signzian

There’s an unexpected and rapid evolution in the FinTech industry, which is being driven by technology. This tech-led development has made changes to the way we think about banking and payments. As a result, consumers are slowly transitioning to digital payment methods.

2021, like every year, saw several significant cyberattacks and data leaks that exposed the personal information of millions of consumers online, and 2022 would be no exception. In the first half of 2021, more than 98.2 million people were victims of the top ten data breaches, according to ITRC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

New research by Skybox Security shows that as much as 73% of CIOs and CISOs underestimate the risk of cyberattacks as they are too confident in their ability to detect and respond.

Under the purview of cyber security, it has become more vital than ever for organizations to continuously monitor their environments for threats, both internal and external.

The FinTech industry is facing tough challenges regarding security as cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated and data breaches occur on a large scale. Security is a top priority for banks, credit unions, and financial institutions as cyber-attacks continue to rise and threaten the privacy of millions of consumers.

While the FinTech industry is taking several steps to secure its systems, there are still some challenges that remain to be addressed. Here are a few security trends in the FinTech sector for 2022:

New Regulatory Technology (RegTech)

A cloud-computing technology, RegTech helps financial institutions address complex compliance issues by automating regulatory processes. This will help banks and other FinTech companies to stay ahead of changes in the regulatory environment and adapt quickly to new rules. With the help of big data and machine learning tech, RegTech can automate the compliance process and make it more efficient.

In fact, according to a poll, 68.6% of vendors advised that supervisors should encourage regulated businesses to use RegTech in their supervisory process.

Adoption Of AI For Fraud Detection

As the digital payments industry continues to grow, fraud will become a major challenge. According to a Forbes post, nearly eight in ten mobile banking users are concerned about credit card fraud.

Financial institutions will need to adopt AI-based technologies like deep learning and machine learning for advanced fraud detection. AI tools can help banks and other financial institutions analyze large amounts of data and get insight into customer behavior patterns, allowing them to stay ahead of hackers who are constantly looking for loopholes in payment systems.

Increasing Reliability In Blockchain Systems

The distributed ledger technology (DLT) of blockchain can help reduce the risk of fraud and provide a more secure way of storing data. Blockchain can also help streamline the process of KYC (know-your-customer) and AML (anti-money laundering). Financial institutions will need to increase the reliability of their blockchain systems to ensure the safety of customer data.

Implementation Of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Architecture

With a growing number of connected devices, banks and other financial institutions must adopt a security architecture that can protect them from DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks. One such solution is the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) system, which provides secure connectivity through a combination of software technologies like authentication proxies and encryption techniques.

Taking Up Stronger Data Security Measures

As the use of big data and analytics increases in the financial sector, so does the risk of data breaches. To protect customer data, banks and other financial institutions will need to implement stronger security measures such as data encryption, two-factor authentication, and access control.

The Bottomline

With the pandemic accelerating the shift to digital payments, the FinTech industry is facing new challenges regarding security. To stay ahead of the curve, financial institutions need to adopt new technologies and implement stronger security measures. From RegTech to blockchain, several trends will shape the security landscape of the FinTech industry in 2022 and beyond.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

 

 

Tackling Talent Shortage in The Fintech Industry And Other Financial Services

Posted on | by Signzian

With a stunning 182% boost in tech job growth, the global fintech industry did exceedingly well in the first quarter of 2022. But it is predicted that the sector will face massive hurdles in the coming quarters of 2022 as a significant shortage in tech talent threatens to decrease the growth of the global fintech sector.

Although lack of skilled labor accounts for part of this concern, the primary issue lies within increased attrition. Some may even attribute this to ‘The Great Resignation’ phenomenon. Nonetheless, there must be ways to consider this.

As soon as Fintechs improved at loping the client acquisition challenge, talent acquisition and retention became a new obstacle. The threat of losing a qualified and growing workforce and customer service amplifies the sales-related stress. With that in mind, retaining talented people is becoming as important as bringing in new customers.

From Where Does The Concern Incept?

Among the primary concerns that prevent employees from being efficient and loyal to their jobs is a maze of offers from other companies. However, with the increased presence of open banking and the rise of new fintech players, employees have ample choice now in what they do and where they want to do it.

Since 2001 financial technology workers in the USA quit their jobs at the highest rate, according to a 2019 US Bureau of Labor Statistics report. This increased to a tremendous rate following the COVID-19 Outbreak. In December 2021 alone, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs. It’s therefore vital for businesses to ensure that they have the right work cultures and processes to enable and nurture talent, especially as they are going through hyper-growth.

Now is the time for executive and primary leaders to acknowledge and adapt to the evolving needs of their employees. This is to be done with as much dedication and commitment as they provide their customers. Gallup reported that more than half of the workforce in America is disengaged from their respective jobs. At the same time, the engaged employees considerably reduce the associated cost of turnover, which usually remains high. The overall customer experience and annual revenue directly link to employee retention and decreased attrition damage.

According to another report, the draining shortage of software engineers in the fintech industry in the past three years makes recruiting harder. Unfortunately, this also increases the time to fill exponentially. As a result, the cost of incorporating a new software engineer into the workforce is rising, and a reputed HR brand, together with employee retention and decreased attrition processes, increases in importance.

Ensuring Employee Retention With A Good HR Brand

Companies that understand and value employee experience are already on a good start. They should promote initiatives to improve the employee experience. As a result, their customer experience success rate will boost. The favorable outcomes earned through apt and efficient strategic employee engagement will generate a workplace culture that values the trust among employees as well as external customers they interact with each day.

The game plan must include multiple vital components to keep the HR management on top, well-informed, and proactive. There are several aspects to consider while pursuing this goal. Still, to keep it concise, the following are the primary three points you must never ignore when it comes to interacting and engaging the employees:

Speak To And Be Accessible To Your Employees.

A famous firm that shall not be named refers to its employees as resources. It seems absurd to reasonable ears to hear a human being referred to as a resource. Moreover, it gives an outright impression that the company sees its employees as objects. This is the wrong approach.

Your employees are your company’s spine. They are humans. They need proper communication with their colleagues and must feel secure. When isolated, they will feel insecure, resulting in inefficient performances. That’s why talents value good management’s transparency and approachability in a friendly atmosphere. Hence, when you interact with your employees on casual topics or engage in occasional conversations, consider letting them know of your good mood; it highly encourages their loyalty and sincerity, which are vital to keeping them on the ship.

Improve Talent With Effective Educational And Growth Opportunities

A proper sense of fulfillment at work fundamentally depends on how the enterprise recognizes and acknowledges the individual traits of an employee. If a company focuses on encouraging growth and formulates a professional pathway for each employee, it resolves numerous problems at the workplace. Some of the perks include:

  • It shows that employees are valued and vital to the organization.
  • It helps engage their interests and allows them to concentrate and be actively efficient.
  • It fetches the best talent out there.

Enhancing business knowledge is essential for all employees’ professional training and support for growth. Accompanying the loyalty this deems, it brings a better understanding of internal and external processes to the game, helping the management avoid any mistakes. It also shortens development time to nearly 50 percent. The usual personal financial perks provided for employees in the fintech industry will also help. They learn more about investing, banking processes, and different financial companies/markets. The employees can benefit from all this by making better decisions to engage in good financial companies.

Make Sure to Engage Teams, Especially The Remote Ones

Today, creating distributed teams is a current trend in team management. If managed resourcefully, your company will benefit from hiring remote individuals and skilled labor. However, it’s an unfair conclusion that having a widely distributed team is a high risk. Proper management makes such a team more than a success. Unfortunately, only 8 percent of the companies that utilize alternative workers know how to establish processes efficiently. There are methods to determine and resolve the problems in the fintech industry that diminish the team’s efficiency and ensure that the transition to a distributed team is safe and smooth.

Remote employees  also need to communicate with peers, craft networks, share opinions, and know that they are acknowledged and appreciated. Ensure to make them feel to be part of the work family without insisting upon it; they will chime in more than they need to when it’s needed. 

In Essence

Considering the current scenario of the Great Resignation, many leaders are taking action. For example, a recent report from Gartner revealed that 58% of all IT heads reported an increase in emerging tech investments in 2021. In 2020 this was 29%. And most of this will be aimed at sustaining a talent-rich environment in the industry.

Skilled labor is indeed hard to retain. Finding it is harder still. Hence with consideration for the employees without compromising the vision each enterprise engages in, we can pave a path forward. And this path can lead to the penultimate sustenance of a self-engaged financial ecosystem, ultimately tackling the talent shortage in the fintech industry. From thenceforth, we can pursue what every innovative fintech aspires for; a revolution in the sector for the better.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Developing A Secure FinTech Application: Cybersecurity In FinTech

Posted on | by Signzian

When it comes to FinTech applications, cybersecurity is of paramount importance. In an industry where data security and privacy are of the utmost concern, any breach could have devastating consequences. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your FinTech application is as secure as possible.

But, how do you go about developing a secure FinTech application? Before you even start to think about that, we’d like to run you through some crucial stats:

  • More than $50 billion are invested each year in FinTech
  • 2 out of three transactions are made online
  • By 2030, the global FinTech market is expected to be worth $698.48 billion, growing at a CAGR of 20.3% from 2021 to 2030.
  • There are currently over 12,000 FinTech startups worldwide, with 500+ new FinTechs being created every year.

Now that you have a better understanding of the scope and significance of the FinTech industry, let’s take a look at how to develop a secure FinTech application.

But First, Cybersecurity!

How not to expose the personal data of nearly 145.5 million of your consumers in a single day, resulting in a $4 billion loss? Definitely don’t ask Equifax – a company that was responsible for one of the largest data breaches in history. The 2017 Equifax breach resulted in the exposure of names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver’s licence numbers. But that’s not all – hackers also gained access to credit card numbers for more than 200,000 people and disputed documents with personal information for more than 182,000 people.

In short – it was a catastrophe. And it could have easily been avoided if proper cybersecurity measures were in place.

Secure FinTech Cybersecurity Challenges

When it comes to FinTech cybersecurity, there are a few key challenges that need to be addressed:

  1. Data Security And Privacy: In FinTech, data security is the top concern as 70% of banks consulted during the Sixth Annual Bank Survey. In the wake of high-profile data breaches, consumers are increasingly concerned about the security of their data. As a result, FinTech companies must go above and beyond to ensure that data is properly protected.
  2. Payment Security: With the rise of mobile payments, FinTech companies must be extra vigilant when it comes to payment security. Any breach could result in stolen funds or sensitive financial information.
  3. Fraud Prevention: The popularity of FinTech applications is contributing to the increase in cybercrime and fraud attempts. FinTech companies need to have strong fraud prevention measures in place to protect their customers.
  4. Employee security: In many cases, the weakest link in a company’s cybersecurity is its own employees. FinTech companies need to make sure that their employees are properly trained and educated on best practices for cybersecurity.

Secure FinTech Regulations And Policies

In addition to implementing strong cybersecurity measures, FinTech companies also need to be aware of the various regulations and policies that govern their industry. These include:

1. GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a set of regulations that were introduced in 2018 to protect the personal data of individuals in the European Union. The GDPR applies to any company that processes or intends to process the personal data of individuals in the EU.

2. eIDAS: The European Union’s eIDAS regulation is a set of standards that govern electronic identification and trust services. The regulation applies to any company that offers electronic identification, signatures, or other trust services within the EU.

3. PSD2: The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) is a set of regulations that were introduced in 2018 to improve the safety and security of online payments in the European Union. The PSD2 applies to any company that offers payment services within the EU.

4. PCI DSS: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards that aims to protect the payment data of cardholders. The standard applies to any company that processes, stores, or transmits credit card information in any way.

5. APPI: The Association for Payment and Clearing Services (APPI) is a set of guidelines that were introduced in 2017 to protect the payment data of cardholders. The APPI applies to any company that offers e-commerce services within East Africa.

Secure FinTech Cybersecurity Solutions

So, how do you make sure your FinTech application is secure? Here are some tips:

1. Use Encryption

Data encryption is incredibly important when it comes to data security. As a FinTech company, you should never store your customers’ sensitive information in plaintext. Always use industry-standard encryption algorithms and protocols, such as 3DES or RSA – they can ensure that even if your data is stolen, it will be difficult for hackers to decipher and use.

2. Role-Based Authentication

Role-based authentication restricts access to data based on the user’s role (administrator, sales representative, etc.). This can help prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information and make it easier for security teams to monitor access patterns.

With the varying access level requirements of different users within a FinTech application, role-based authentication can provide a seamless and secure experience that’s tailored to each user.

3. Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security by requiring additional steps before authorizing access to data. This could include receiving a text message with a code or using biometric identification (fingerprint scanning, facial recognition software, etc.) to verify identity.

Multi-factor authentication also protects against phishing attacks, as it prevents hackers from accessing your application through fake login pages.

4. Short Login Sessions

Another way to increase security is to require users to re-authenticate after a period of inactivity. This will help prevent unauthorized access if a user’s device is lost or stolen.

Reduced session time can also reduce the risk of attacks that use brute-force methods to guess account credentials.

5. Force Password Change

Finally, to further protect your customers’ data, you may want to consider mandating users to change their passwords periodically. This can help prevent hackers from gaining access by guessing weak or compromised passwords.

To create a truly secure FinTech application, you must take these steps and leverage the latest cybersecurity technologies and best practices. And as always, make sure you partner with a trustworthy IT provider who will work with you every step of the way!

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

 

Who Regulates the NBFCs?- Supreme Court Settles The States’ Money Lending Laws Disparity With RBI

Posted on | by Signzian

 

Last week, the Supreme Court held that Non­-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) regulated by the Reserve Bank of India could not be regulated by individual state enactments.

A bench of Justices Ramasubramanian V and Hemant Gupta said NBFCs play a vital role in contributing to the country’s financial health, whose operations are controlled by RBI. Therefore, it said that the Reserve Bank of India has no say in such a relevant matter of vital interest. It would strike at the fundamentals of the statutory control vested in the Reserve Bank of India.

“It may be true that many times RBI may not be controlling the rate of interest charged by NBFCs on the loans advanced by them. It does not mean that they have no power to step in,” the bench said.

The Supreme Court examined whether Non-Banking Financial Companies regulated by the Reserve Bank of India could also be regulated by specific State enactments such as the Kerala Money Lenders Act, 1958 and the Gujarat Money Lenders Act, 2011.

The fact that the Chapter III­B of the RBI Act assigns a supervisory role for the Reserve Bank of India to oversee and regulate the NBFCs’ functioning, including all their activities, automatically comes under the scanner of the RBI. This applies to the NBFCs from their inception (registration) till the time of their commercial denouement (winding up/cancellation).

“As a consequence, the single aspect of taking care of the interest of the borrowers which is sought to be achieved by the State enactments gets subsumed in the provisions of Chapter III­B,” the bench said.

The Supreme court also said it believed that the Kerala Act and the Gujarat Act would not apply to all NBFCs registered under the RBI Act, which the RBI regulates.

Therefore, the bench stated that all the appeals the NBFCs filed against the Kerala High Court’s judgment are standing and allowed. Similarly, the appeals the State of Gujarat filed against the judgment of the Gujarat High Court are wholly dismissed.

What It Means

The statement by the Supreme Court comes as a massive breath of fresh air for NBFC in particular and the fintech industry as a whole. None of the RBI-regulated financial companies need to get tangled in multiple jurisdictions and unnecessary compliance complications. Contradictions between jurisprudence are also apparent and transparent.

Even then, financial companies still need to follow many regulatory compliances. For this, they need reliable fintech service providers to ensure good service. Signzy can get you the apt products and services you seek. With our customizable AI-driven API resources for KYC, Onboarding, etc., which are absolutely regulations compliant, you can make all your financial technology processes optimized to the best degree.

Key Takeaways

  • The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) will unequivocally regulate Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and state money-lending laws will have no applicability to them.
  • The verdict was that the Kerala Act and the Gujarat Act would have no application to the NBFCs registered under the RBI Act and regulated by the RBI.
  • No NBFC can begin or carry on business without obtaining a registration certificate under the RBI Act; their continuation in business would depend upon compliance with the RBI Act and circulars/directions issued by the RBI.
  • This is impactful news for NBFCs as this will help maneuver unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles.
  • It creates a strict differentiation between local money lenders and Non-Banking Financial Companies.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

RRA Refocus On Circulars- What The RRA’s recommendation To RBI Was And What It Means For The Fintech Industry

Posted on | by Signzian

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) stated the Regulations Review Authority(RRA 2.0) had recommended withdrawing an additional 225 redundant circulars on the RBI website. The Reserve Bank had set up the RRA 2.0(Regulations Review Authority) to reduce the burden of compliance on REs(regulated entities).

“RRA 2.0(Regulations Review Authority 2.0) has recommended withdrawal of an additional 225 circulars in the third tranche of recommendations,” the Reserve Bank Of India said in a statement last week.

The RBI is separately issuing the notifications, including the list of specific instructions recommended for withdrawal.

Once the Reserve Bank Of India does remove these redundant circulars, it will be a welcoming step for optimizing the regulatory compliance associated with the sector. Moreover, it will significantly help the banking and fintech industries as financial technology is constantly impeded by regulatory bureaucracy.

In the second tranche, the Regulations Review Authority 2.0 had also recommended merger/ discontinuation/ conversion to online submission of 65 returns. In addition, they also emphasized creating a new ‘Regulatory Reporting’ link on the central bank’s official website to consolidate all the information relating to any regulatory reporting.

History of RRA 2.0

The Reserve Bank of India established the Regulations Review Authority 2.0 to review all the regulatory instructions, reduce the burden of compliance on Regulated Entities (REs), and remove redundant and duplicate instructions.

Regulations Review Authority 2.0 focuses on properly streamlining regulatory instructions, reducing requirements for reporting wherever possible, and reducing the burden of compliance of the regulated entities(REs) by simplifying procedures and processes.

The Reserve Bank of India had established an RRA initially for only a year from April 1, 1999, for mostly reviewing the regulations, reporting systems, and circulars based on the genuine feedback from the banks, the public, and other financial institutions(FIs).

The recommendations of the Regulations Review Authority enabled streamlining and incrementing the effectiveness of various procedures and simplified regulatory prescriptions. It paved the way for issuing master circulars and reduced reporting burden on regulated entities; the RBI had said in April last year while announcing the setting up of RRA 2.0.

What this means for financial technology

The talk needs to be walked from the RBI website to the financial companies and regulated entities in the form of new rules. Once the redundant circulars are effectively withdrawn, it will be a comforting move for regulatory compliance in all sectors. This is particularly true in fintech. As the fintech industry is closely knit with advancing technology, outdated regulations constantly impede the excellent implementation of solutions.

Although RBI and other regulating entities are striving to walk the fine line of easing the processes for regulated entities while affirming the safety and security of the customers, it remains difficult to follow the proper regulatory compliance. This is especially true in cases of compliance involving digitization and automation. 

If you are concerned about how to handle this, you need not seek further. Signzy provides the-state-of-the-art API resources that are No-Code AI-driven and offer customizable options for all your needs. Check out our products here.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Know Everything About The RBI’s New Rules Revamp For Credit And Debit Cards

Posted on | by Signzian

With over 5,90,000 ATM transactions and close to 211 million POS(point-of-sale) credit card transactions, December 2021 was an intriguing month for the financial industry. These numbers keep on increasing, and the government is taking measures to ensure that card issuers do right by the customers.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) provided new rules for the Issue of credit and debit cards and apt directions to issuing agencies. The new rules will be implemented from July 1, 2022. 

These directions encompass the conduct regulations relating to credit, debit, and co-branded cards and their payments. They apply to every bank in India.

The official RBI website prescribes the new rules as master directions. These are meant to provide just treatment for debit and credit services customers. The RBI website also hints at further reforms in the coming months.

General guidelines for card issuance

  • If a card is blocked at the customer’s request, a replacement card can only be issued with the customer’s explicit consent. Further, the card issuer must obtain the explicit consent of the cardholder before the renewal of an existing card.
  • The T&C for issuing and usage of a card will be mentioned in simple language with clarity. This will preferably be in Hindi, English, and regional languages.
  • If any convenience fee is charged on specific transactions, it shall be transparently indicated to the cardholder before the transaction.
  • The terms shall specify the time for a reversal of failed transactions and the compensation payable for failure to meet the specified timeline.
  • The card issuer may alter terms, but they must provide a 30 days notice of the change to the cardholder to enable the customer to withdraw if they choose. 

Guidelines for debit cards

  • Debit cards shall only be issued to savings bank or current accounts customers.
  • Banks will not force a customer to avail of a debit card facility and shall not link issuance of a card to opt for any additional facility from the bank.

Guidelines for credit cards

  • Unsolicited upgrading or the Issue of unsolicited cards is strictly prohibited. Suppose an unsolicited card is issued, or an existing card is upgraded and activated without the customer’s explicit consent (a bill is generated). In that case, the card-issuer shall reverse charges and pay the penalty amounting twice the value of reversed charges.
  • The card-issuer is wholly held responsible if there is a misuse of such unsolicited cards (before reaching those whose names it was issued).
  • Consent must be explicit for the Issue of cards- i.e., written consent is required before a credit card issuance. If written permission is difficult to obtain, digital means can be used but must be communicated to the RBI.
  • Card issuers and third-party agents have been told not to resort to intimidation or harassment during the recovery of dues.

Guidelines for loss of cards

  • Card-issuer will block a lost card immediately after being informed.
  • Card issuers shall provide detailed information on reporting loss, theft, or unauthorized use of a card or even the PIN. This must include channels such as a dedicated number for SMS, a dedicated helpline, a dedicated e-mail-id, a visible hyperlink on the website, internet banking and mobile app, etc.
  • Card issuers shall immediately send a confirmation after blocking the card.

Grievances and Complaints

  • Card issuers shall implement mechanisms and provide publicity. They should mention the name, email-id, contact number, and the designated officer’s postal address on the account statements and credit card bills.
  • The designated officer ensures that the grievances of cardholders are redressed promptly without delay.
  • Card issuers must ensure call center staff is trained to manage and escalate complaints. There should be an effective system of acknowledging customers’ complaints about apt follow-ups, including complaint numbers, even if complaints are received over the phone.
  • Card issuers will be liable to compensate the complainant for loss of time, expenses, financial loss, and the harassment suffered for the mistakes of the card issuer if they did not redress the grievance in time. If a complainant receives no satisfactory response from the card issuer within a span of one month from the date of the lodged complaint, they can approach the RBI to redress grievances.

Confidential customer information

  • Card issuers will not reveal information regarding the customers without obtaining their consent. They must tell customers the purpose of the information and the organizations they will share the information with.
  • Information sought from customers cannot violate law provisions relating to maintaining secrecy in transactions. The card issuers will be responsible for the accuracy or otherwise of the data provided.

Conclusion

This master direction for credit and debit cards is an excellent effort from the government’s side to provide customer convenience and ensure just treatment. This will boost credit and debit card usage in the coming years. Notwithstanding this, it is a burden on many financial institutions. The entire onboarding structure will need scrutiny and revamp. They require reliable, safe, and user-friendly fintech services. With a no-code AI-driven platform and multiple customizable API resources, Signzy can undoubtedly provide you with the solutions you seek.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

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