Bank of America has come out top in a study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research that examines how well US financial services firms prevent, detect and resolve consumer identity theft.
Bank of America received the highest overall ranking in the study - which surveyed 24 of the top financial institutions in the US - and was closely followed by JP Morgan Chase and Washington Mutual.
Marshall & Ilsley Bank came out top for prevention – the category with the most weight in the evaluation. JP Morgan also received a category award for detection while Washington Mutual received the category award for resolution. Javelin says KeyBank also showed overall strength across all the categories.
The report singles out Citibank for its clearly-stated e-mail policies that make it easier for consumers to avoid phishing.
Commenting on the study, James Van Dyke, president of Javelin Strategy & Research, says financial institutions have improved significantly in giving consumers the tools they need to detect fraud on their own.
But he says prevention is the next area in which financial institutions should focus efforts: "We found that financial institutions focus much more on resolving problems after they occur rather than stopping them up front."
Van Dyke says a way of improving prevention is to allow consumers to prohibit unusual or risky transactions. Providers can also improve detection by offering the types of alerts that consumers commonly want to receive and that also provide the strongest protection benefits.
"We found that consumers are eager to monitor certain types of safety-related information that many financial providers are not yet offering," he says.
Van Dyke says the report also extends a clear warning to financial institutions when it comes to regulatory compliance, only one institution has fully implemented a system for compliance with the Federal Financial Institute Examination Council's (FFIEC) guidance for online authentication,
US banks have an end-of-year deadline for FFIEC remote authentication compliance, but Van Dyke says financial institutions "have not yet taken the necessary steps to conform to the new guidelines".