Innovation, US

“Madness!” “Outrageous!” “How’s this help the rich?” (New Washington Mutual campaign)

Colin Henderson

So even though their web explanation isn’t clear, this advertising campaign to support WAMU’s new account is brilliant, and should resonate with consumers.

This is what I would have expected from WAMU.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

Banks have a long way to go to truely think and act in the best interests of consumers. Thinking like a bank is not how you get inside the minds of consumers. Time to clean out some of the traditional banker types in HQ.
Washington Mutual Launches National Advertising Campaign in Support of Its New WaMu Free Checking(TM) Account, Stirs Up the Industry

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 13, 2006–Washington Mutual, Inc. (NYSE:WM) Humorous Approach Takes on ‘Stodgy’ Banking Industry to Cries of ‘Madness,’ ‘This is Outrageous'”Madness!” “Outrageous!” “How’s this help the rich?”

There hasn’t been this much commotion in the marbled halls of banking since the bars were removed from teller cages. What’s got old-fashioned bankers from NYC to LA chomping their cigars to a nub?

Washington Mutual’s at it again.

The bank today launches a national advertising campaign supporting a new free checking account that’s got bankers (at least the ones in the ads) fuming over the unprecedented bundle of free features.

Continue reading ““Madness!” “Outrageous!” “How’s this help the rich?” (New Washington Mutual campaign)”

Payments, Security

Association of Financial Professionals – new Payments Risk Survey; Feb 2006

Colin Henderson

Association of Financial Professionals new report, on how US corporations manage payment risk.  They key point is that the majority of Corporations have risk mitigation plans, but I’d note that its the larger corporations, and its not top of mind for many, with 19% of large corporations having no written plan. Payments Risk Survey Key findings are: Payments Fraud Sixty-eight percent of organizations were targets of attempted or actual payments fraud in 2005 Checks and ACH debits were the most frequently used vehicles for payments fraud The majority of organizations (54 percent) that experienced card payments fraud suffered a financial … Continue reading Association of Financial Professionals – new Payments Risk Survey; Feb 2006

Security

Official: Canada Commits To Complete Chip Migration By 2010

Colin Henderson

Its official and public now. 2007 will see the first pilots, and go live in 2008. Key is the joing announcement from Debit (Interac) and Credit (MasterCard & Visa)

Payments News » Canada Commits To Complete Chip Migration By 2010 » March 13, 2006

Members of the Canadian payment card industry — Interac Association, MasterCard Canada Inc., Visa Canada Association, and many of their respective card issuers and acquirers — have announced a firm commitment to a broad industry migration to chip technology beginning with deployments next year and migration completion scheduled for 2010.

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Security

PIN Scandal “Worst Hack Ever;” Citibank Only The Start

Colin Henderson

Latest updates on what certainly seems to be the largest PIN/ATM fraud ever. Card networks are only as secure as the weakest links. Somehow the electronic message has to get from a merchant/ ATM to the issuing bank. Along the way are a series of third party payment networks, and this underlies the inherent risk here.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

Banks have to get used to bad guys doing bad things, and get their minds around guarantees to customers.  Its like the Rolls Royce story – they never break down, and banks should be the same.

Guarantee your customers that their money is safe.  Eliminate the subtext and condition that bankers always leave as an out, just in case customers try to defraud them.  But how many actually try to do that?  Its time to manage to the majority that are honest customers who simply want to rely on their bank.

From Techweb:

But Citibank is only the tip of the iceberg, said Avivah Litan, a Gartner research vice president. The scam — and scandal — has hit national banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual, as well as smaller banks, including ones in Oregon, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all of which have re-issued debit cards in recent weeks.

Here is what Citibank said:

Citibank, the consumer and corporate banking arm of Citigroup Inc., confirmed Wednesday that the bank and its customers were the victims of a third-party company information breach that has forced the bank to block PIN-based transactions for customers in Canada, Russia, and the U.K.

And finally, here is how the US banks are co-operating to try and stem risk from reliance on third parties.

These highly publicized embarrassments are beginning to have some affect on how companies handle customer data. In February, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo & Co., plus major auditors and service providers, released a common methodology that financial services companies could use to assess service-provider security. BITS, a consortium backed by the financial-services industry, developed the methodology after studying service providers including Acxiom, First Data, IBM, Viewpointe Archive Services, and Yodlee. The goal is to give service providers consistent demands and make them live up to them. Banks are cooperating because they know the alternative: fines, lawsuits, and a tarnished image that can’t be easily fixed.

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AI

ouch – that’s me!

Colin Henderson

Sightly off topic, but further to the earlier post on corporate blogging, based on Jeremiah’s blog, this description from his blog sums up a core group of very smart people, that I am proud to work with. Web Strategy by Jeremiah: Business Blogging is not a fad, now to focus on ‘HOW’ Then there’s the regular corporate folks who wear plastic badges on zip string attached to their belts, sit in cubicles and are issued Dell D600 laptops. We fill out expense reports, try to figure out how to measure ROI, marshal internal resources where none existed, wrestle with IT … Continue reading ouch – that’s me!

AI1 Comment

How to be a Corporate Blog Evangelist

Colin Henderson

This is quote simply the most articulate description of a model for blogging in general, and specifically corporate blogging, that I have read.  (Thanks to the new “kinder gentler” Scoble for the link.)  It points us towards a future that scares the hell out of every corporation today …. a future that will allow corporations to listen and talk with customers, otherwise known as real conversations.  If it scares corporations generally, it makes Banks dissolve into a puddle of sweat – talk to customers you say;  good grief that’s what we do in the controlled environment of a branch office.  … Continue reading How to be a Corporate Blog Evangelist

Security

PIN Scandal ‘Worst Hack Ever’; Citibank Only The Start – UPDATE 3

Colin Henderson

I am the last person to over hype a hack/ phish, but seems to me this one is huge.  I am particularly interested in Gartners view that Banks have nailed pishing, and ATM’s/ PIN fraud is next.  It makes sense actually.   Banks have beaten phishing down to a small pulp.  The bad guys continue to send out the emails, and about 13% of customers receiving those emails respond (Forrester), but the Banks catch them mid stream too.  As much as the bad guys are smart, the Banks fraud pattern recognition systems are getting pretty good too.  Its hard to believe … Continue reading PIN Scandal ‘Worst Hack Ever’; Citibank Only The Start – UPDATE 3

Security

Citibank ATM – update

Colin Henderson

This from silicon.com confirms the methodology of accessing Citi ATM’s through a merchant server (OfficeMax). Citibank card fraud – magnetic strip to blame? – Financial Services – Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com Citibank this week admitted that hundreds of its US customers had been affected when hackers broke into the ATM network through a retail store server and stole a “block” of PINs and the keys to decrypt them. The article goes on to quote an expert, that Chip cards are better than mag stripe.  This article makes me still think that its a mistake to offer Chip … Continue reading Citibank ATM – update

Security

Citi fraud case may have begun at a merchant, not ATM skimming

Colin Henderson

Thanks to Wineboffin for this lead in the Citibank ATM case.  This news.com article quotes police in Leonminster, Mass here, indicating that it was not ATM fraud, but rather fraud at a merchant, OfficeMax, that compromised the debit cards. New debit card fraud tied to West Coast case | CNET News.com “I thought that the thefts may have involved a skimming device installed at local ATMs,” Wolferseder said. “Now I’m following up this OfficeMax connection.” The story indicates a massive debit card replacement took place recently on the US west coast, that involved several big banks. Two banking sources, speaking … Continue reading Citi fraud case may have begun at a merchant, not ATM skimming

Security

Citibank – “We don’t care about you!” – a sad customer story

Colin Henderson

Here is the original customer problem with additional details provided by Citi to the customer. The part that intrigues me, is the comment from the Citibank call centre employee regarding "crackers". There must be more about this somewhere, and I will track it down.
ioerror: Citibank – "We don't care about you!"

Citibank refused to tell me anymore details beyond saying a group of illegal
crackers had generated a bunch of account numbers and also generated a
bunch of pin numbers.

It all began this way….

I first attempted to use my ATM card at 4:42PM to access $100 from my
checking account. I was at a small local market, not a bank. To my
surprise, the ATM machine rejected the transaction and urged me to
contact my financial institution. The machine also reported on the
receipt "INELIGIBLE ACCOUNT." Thinking I'd merely made a mistake,
perhaps even in balancing my checking account, I attempted to withdraw
the same amount of money from my savings account. I know that I
correctly typed my pin number in but again, I was rejected and urged to
contact my financial institution. I assumed those messages about
rejection were just custom to the machine and there was some issue with
that machine.At this point, I was pretty sure that something was amiss but I decided
to defer judgment until I'd visited a real bank of some sort. It could
just be the ATM machine I'd used. I walked down the road to a Royal Bank
of Canada and I attempted to use my ATM card again. Having absolutely
zero Canadian cash with me, I was hopeful this would work. Much to my
dismay, it did not. Attempting to withdraw from my checking account
resulted in a similar "INVALID ACCOUNT" message. The same of my savings
account. An attempt to withdraw from my credit card tied to my ATM
account also failed.

Here
is the entire account. From a customer perspective this service level
is precisely why Banks have a bad reputation. It may not be the
customers fault, but the opportunity to make this one loyal customer is
lost forever now.

Continue reading “Citibank – “We don’t care about you!” – a sad customer story”