ID innovation will attract copy cats

ING is saying goodbye to the 100 point check

It might have slipped under the radar of most in the industry, but one financial institution has broken from the pack to offer the biggest online innovation in years. ING Direct is saying goodbye to the 100 point ID check.

While many thought Anti-Money Laundering would add to compliance headaches, the Dutch giant is using the new legislation to its advantage by using electronic verification processes to identify new customers. Its latest savings and term deposit application is completely online.

Make no mistake, this is a game-changing move. Once more institutions enable online identity verification, customers will be quick to see the benefits, and with demand growing from customers, banks will again be forced to innovate.

Change is never easy within financial institutions, which is why innovative banks, including AMP (“Putting Web 2.0 to work”), are turning to Web 2.0 tools to foster collaboration within the enterprise. Connecting the right people and information using wikis and blogs is one way to break the tradition of “That’s how we’ve always done it”.

Enterprise 2.0 advocate Ross Dawson says executives are over-emphasising the risks of using Web 2.0 tools. Online marketer Simon van Wyk also highlights a fear of change (“Creating value, not TV ads”) as he makes a call for marketers to replace conventional advertising with services that deliver real value to customers.
It all reminds me of a saying that is popular with change managers: “If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got”.

The question is: Will that be enough to take your bank to the top?

June/July 2008

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