By Richard Barr, Principal Associate, Citadel Advantage Ltd.
For banks, is there such as a thing as too much security when it comes to protecting your client’s money?
On the face of it, the answer would be no. After all a bank has a fiduciary obligation to look after the client’s interests. Multiple layers of heavy security can only serve to strengthen that position of trust. Multiple layers of access security not only protect the clients, it protects the bank and serves to enhance its reputation. At least that how reasoning goes, and it certainly seems to make sense. Nobody wants to be the victim of theft.
But when those multiple layers of security become so heavy as to be a complete roadblock to the client, it becomes useless. Take my experience at Citibank as a case in point…
I needed to transfer a relatively small sum of cash from my account at Citibank to my sister-in-law’s account, also at Citibank. By any description, this should be a very easy transaction to perform. I’m soon to discover how wrong I was.
1. I log into my Citibank account online, requiring my user name and password; the first layer of security.
2. After requesting an internal bank transfer to another party, I’m asked for my ATM card number and a specific token; the second layer of security.
3. So far so good, I’ve passed through the 2 layers of security and entered all the transfer information. Reviewing the data, I click on the confirm button thinking all is good. Up pops a screen telling me to call a customer service number to finalize the transfer, otherwise the transfer will automatically be cancelled. Now minor irritation kicks in.
4. I call the number (international long distance in this instance) and navigate the annoying system and reach who I assume to be a real person. This person performs yet another layer of security checks and places me on hold; my third layer of security. After perhaps 5 minutes on hold, he returns to me and tells me that he’s transferring me to the office where the transfer may be finalized. Why did he bother putting me on hold? Why didn’t the web page give me that phone number directly instead of jumping through a useless hoop? Minor irritation turns to a slightly higher level of frustration.
5. Yet another person conducts the identical security confirmation to start the conversation, which by the way I already had with the previous clerk. Yet another security check; the forth layer of security (HEAVY SIGH).
6. The Citibank clerk than tells me he’s going to ask me three multiple choice questions about me gleaned from public records and I should know the answer. Yet another level of security; this is the 5th layer and most ABSURD of security I’m being put through. Why absurd? Because the questions have NOTHING to do with me. The three questions have no connection to my reality. They consist of places I was supposed to have lived in such as Bolder Colorado or Santa Fe New Mexico; both of which I’ve never lived at. Next were P.O. Box locations for cities I’ve never even visited, let alone lived. And a place I owned property, though I’ve never owned property in the United States, ever! But because they’ve been gleaned from public sources, I’m the one that must be wrong and the clerk immediately cancels the transfer. No amount of reason, logic or truth will be accepted. The faulty Citibank system is the final judge, juror and executioner. No appeals allowed!
7. The clerk’s supervisor backs up the clerk and I am not allowed to access my funds in the way I’ve chosen despite having gone through several layers of what turns out to be useless security. I request the supervisor’s manager only to be patched though to an answering machine.
I’m still waiting for a call back. Something tells me, I better figure out another avenue to transfer the small amount of money I need to.
So to answer the question “Can a Bank have too much security in regards to its client’s money?” The answer is yes, when, like Citibank, the security becomes absurdly wrong and it acts to impede the legitimate client. This in turn damages a bank’s reputation such as it does to Citibank.
