Month: March 2019

Blockchain is one of the emerging technologies which has evolved over time significantly. Industry predictions suggest that the space is expanding. With new blockchain-based startups mushrooming, more investments are likely in blockchain-based startups. Not just in banking, blockchain has its place in various other industries like health care, real estate, manufacturing etc. Due to their secure nature, blockchain based smart contracts are considered as an innovative and path breaking technology to adopt.

Banking is one of the fields which constantly looks out for innovation and newer technologies. Some of the areas where blockchain can be adopted are loans, syndication, trade finance, payments, clearing and settlement to name a few. These involve multiple parties, exchange of documents, and several validations related to documents.

Typically, banks face issues in adopting new technologies. This in turn leads to a lag and in some cases a change of strategy. Some of the reasons for the challenges banks face or for their failure in adoption of certain technologies could be –

Adopting not just to Blockchain but any new technology requires high investment and resources. After the initial excitement, many technologies have faced sunset in the past due to multiple reasons like cost, availability of resources, security, infrastructure etc. Some steps that can be taken to mitigate the risk of adopting blockchain technology are –

Blockchain initiatives involve multiple parties for each transaction. In order to have likeminded organizations / banks willing to take up the technology, collaborative training programs for the personnel, and agreements can be put in place to route multi-party transactions among the agreed organizations and banks. These are some of the ways which can be looked at to make blockchain adoption beneficial and convenient to adopt. According to NASSCOM blockchain report 2019 on Global and Indian blockchain market, Public and BFSI sectors are driving blockchain adoption in India with BFSI leading the adoption. Given the technology’s multiple benefits of immutability, transparency and real-time processing, it is finding wide application in myriad use cases that require tracing a product / asset to its origin. These applications include grocery supply chains, real estate, and more. Infosys recently helped a coffee supplier increase acceptance of its coffee beans among certifying bodies, and made the entire supply-chain and payments process simpler using blockchain. Clearly, other industries are not far behind in adopting blockchain.

Like any other technology, blockchain too has flip sides like high cost and infrastructure, energy consumption for processing. With reports on frauds related to blockchain, the susceptibility of blockchain for security breaches should also be tested to understand the vulnerabilities before taking a strategic decision and plunge. This can save enterprises huge costs and resources.

References –

Intelligence defines the ability of an object to apply non-deterministic algorithms in an intervened manner to allow most applicable solution to emerge for the stated objective. The superiority of the outcome thus signifies the level of intelligence. Intelligence could be inherited, acquired or even borrowed. The frame of thinking cells and the seasoning of the experience allows entities to apply right measures of intelligence for a given situation. There is nothing called ‘Artificial’ about intelligence. It could at best be termed ‘Machine’ intelligence.

In an endeavor to cognitively augment human intelligence for accurate analysis of millions of data samples, machines are continuously trained to uplift the performance of outcome as close as it could get to humans. Machines are taught to ‘think’ irrationally just like humans therefore providing a vibrant colour to the eventual outcome. While automation, speed, reliability, scale and handling complex algorithms are basic ingredients of ‘Machine’ intelligence, there are millions of researches happening across domains and industries to seed ‘human nature’ onto machines. ‘Machine’ intelligence (AI) is no-doubt benefiting the society in about every way possible and available. Machines trained intelligently are becoming more and more cognitive to aid people in terms of need. While this looks interesting, there could be potential risks to society if this technology is wrongly used and ends up in the wrong hands.

Recursive self-improvement in machines could potentially trigger something that could surprise humans in an unprecedented way. Let us consider the following 3 scenarios to illustrate this thought:

Creation of wonderful intelligence inside machines (AI) might be the biggest future for the human kind. Augmented super intelligence can help eradicate poverty, improve quality of life and blur the borders between nations. However, before it becomes super-intelligent, goals of AI need to be aligned with ours, aided with ethics, values and morals. To ensure that the risks associated with AI are mitigated, we need critical codes and policies. AI must be dealt with utmost care and precision just like a super power assumes responsibility and controls the proceedings.

We are all well connected with our near and dear ones staying away from us through various digital mediums like messengers which allow us to make video calls. Similarly, in business we conduct video conference for easy interaction irrespective of the location of the participants. But sometimes flying in certain critical resources is unavoidable. With augmented reality (AR) we can have the critical resources present in front of us though not physically, and help us provide clarifications, solve problems and make decisions as required. There lies a great opportunity in using this technology for easy communication, learning, exploring, transferring knowledge, creativity and thereby even implementation and maintenance of software.

I recently went to Ocean Park, Hong Kong where there was a roller coaster ride where we were given an option to wear a head gear with virtual reality (VR) experience. It takes us into a virtual world where we are riding a vehicle in a park and seeing many wild animals in the process forgetting that we are in a roller coaster. It made the experience more fun and enjoyable which in general is scary to many.

The difference between augmented reality and virtual reality is that while virtual reality takes us into a virtual world, augmented reality allows us to remain in the physical world and bring virtual characters into our world. Thus AR can help clarify doubts and make the learning and knowledge transfer process easier and faster. Getting the required information at the required time empowers us to make better decisions and solve problems in real-time without making mistakes.

In software implementation and maintenance, we often come across situations where the product development team is not at the customer location. Thus if an issue needs to be fixed, it is a time consuming process to pass on the understanding of the issue, get the resolution, deploy the patch and retest it in multiple environments. Instead, if augmented reality is applied here, we can make the product expert available at the customer site virtually, understand the real issue and provide quick resolution to the team that is available on site, empowering them and thereby reducing the turnaround time. This can be extended to software design, development and support as well. For example, user of an application can get expert advice and help instantly in case they face a challenge in using the application.

Similar situations are applicable for any problem that requires expert opinion advice, suggestion or input. Using AR to get expert help when required can create significantly richer experiences. This opens up a new way of learning, approaching a problem and rethinking solutions to problems. Traditional methods of teaching and learning need to change. We can upskill workers to take on new responsibilities using augmented reality. We can collaborate in new ways by bringing people in different geographies together to get the job done, accept challenges, take risks, share ideas and go beyond our limitations. It is going to change how we see and experience the world.

Let us change our mindset, embrace and leverage change that is happening around us. Let us become more responsive and agile. Let us not contain good ideas and knowledge to ourselves but share them across our organizations and communities using technologies such as AR.

Last weekend I was looking for a fast broadband connectivity service for my home as my current service provider was unable to provide an upgrade in spite of multiple escalations. I found the answer in a new market entrant which offered the fastest, the cheapest and the most feature-rich service with the most convenient and fast onboarding process of less than 10 minutes. This was the experience I was looking for – completely personalized service, smooth and frictionless cross-channel onboarding process without any hassles.

I think for a truly frictionless customer experience, the right product offered at the right moment and through the best channel creates a wow moment. This ensures a satisfied customer who can advocate and promote your product.

Today, customer experience is the most important leverage a business could use to win in the market. I believe in a customer-centric approach over a product-centric approach. Companies that put their customers at the center are winners, and this has time and again been proven by companies like Google in the search engine space, Apple in smartphone market, and Uber which has shaken up the taxi-service market.

Creating a truly frictionless customer experience is a necessity for any company today. If you achieve this kind of customer experience, you gain customer loyalty which can be a major competitive differentiator for your business instead of competing on price. However, the secret lies in identifying the gaps or pain points and removing any hassles your customers face while interacting with your company. In case of banking services, the gap in customer experience can be closed by introducing self-service systems to address routine questions instead of making the customer wait in contact center queues, or launching chat-bots to address customer queries. The real challenge is enhancing your customers’ preferred way of interacting with you.

With all this in mind, here are a few rules for anyone looking to develop a strategy for frictionless customer experience.

If an organization defines a very good strategy for frictionless customer experience, it can deliver wonders in customer service. To deliver the right experience, technology is an important enabler that companies can use to define flexible processes accurately and design services such that they are not devoid of a human touch.

Without our knowledge, Artificial Intelligence has swarmed us in almost all facets of our life!!! We happen to visit a website one day and get to see advertisements based on our previous searches. We see driverless cars getting tested by various companies and promise to be a reality very soon. We have got many digital assistants like Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, etc. to act on our commands. Who would have thought a few years back that we would be able to play music or book a flight ticket simply through our voice, without manually touching any gadget?

Today Artificial Intelligence is used in almost all industries, and is beginning to show encouraging and positive results in applications ranging from identification of suspect in a bomb explosion, diagnosis of diseases, complicated surgeries done by robots, identification of fraudulent transactions carried out using credit cards, target marketing on online websites, financial advice based on our spending/ saving pattern, construction of artificial homes with light sensors, etc.

Consider house hunting. Be it for renting, selling or buying, hunting for property or accommodation has become really easy with many filters for searches, and systems can throw up many details like how the locality is, price range over a period, etc. One can subscribe for alerts for price change and accordingly take a decision too!

Most business today use chatbots including banks, online commercial websites, etc., to clarify customer queries in real-time. There are arguments about whether the results shown by such chatbots are effective or not; however, over a period of time, as they learn various patterns, they get better in displaying the most appropriate/best suited results.

This has already created a concern about job security among workforces across industries. They are concerned whether they will continue to have their jobs or will machines soon take over. On one hand, this is a valid concern but on the other, can Artificial Intelligence rule the world in the future? It is rather unlikely. Both, human and artificial intelligence need to co-exist. AI cannot replace human attributes such as empathy and personal touch.

Life will become monotonous, if our day to day activities are controlled by machines with no human interactions. Irrespective of the amount of learning undertaken by a machine, it can never match a human being’s gut feel or emotions and react to the situation/ emergency accordingly. But at the same time, a machine can go through any amount of data significantly quickly and arrive at a pattern, a task human beings would potentially take days to do.

Even in such a technologically advanced world, people will still look to be with other human beings to share their feelings. Gadgets can take away attention of human beings for some time but at the end of the day, we are surrounded by people!!! It looks great to see animation movies where machines become a human’s friend but this has a limit and can never be an alternative to a real person.

Both types of intelligence have their advantages and disadvantages. However they need to co-exist for a better world, a world which will also be considerably competitive as ecosystems comprising humans and machines both, will race against each other in business, in geopolitics, and everywhere else. More regulations (need) to be built to enable using Artificial Intelligence in a better / positive way as there is always a tendency to utilize every modern technology in a negative way and harm (our own race/ human race). The future is bright indeed, if we strike a balance between both the types of intelligence.

Any business has its own inherent risks and there is lot of variability involved. There could be market risks of supply demand, liquidity risk, geopolitical risks, human resource risk etc. Well run and efficiently managed corporate businesses internally try to minimize these risks to run a relatively stable business. But is it enough?

Corporates can mitigate significant business risks, not only for themselves, but for all the stakeholders in a supply chain such as vendors, distributors, lenders etc. by harmonizing operations using emerging technologies.

Corporates, for example a manufacturing company, could use Big Data to forecast the demand for their products accurately, which in turn would help them manage orders and existing inventory. Now, when the forecast is near accurate, the variability in procurement orders and human resources can also be stabilized. When raw materials are procured, generally, there is a lead time of around 90 days before payment is made. So, in effect, the raw materials are procured on credit. This is a credit risk to the vendor. Even though the account receivables are shown as current assets in the balance sheet of the vendor, the vendor would require a consistent cash flow to keep his business afloat. When financial institutions like banks participate in vendor-manufacturer relationship with their funds, they can dynamically impact the cash flow for both the vendor and manufacturer and mitigate the credit risk by providing funds on demand.

As soon as the vendor delivers raw materials, the Internet of Things technology can be applied during quality check of the raw materials received, factoring in the returns and approving the Invoice. Though Internet of Things gives real-time status internally to the manufacturer, the resultant data when exposed through open APIs can give information to the bank on the approval of invoice and corresponding amount. Banks can immediately make payments to the vendor on behalf of the manufacturer while opening a loan account for the manufacturer. This greatly reduces the lead time for the vendor. This relationship can be further strengthened by onboarding the vendor, the manufacturer and the bank or banks to a Blockchain network. As a Blockchain network is immutable, all documentation, invoices, bills, QC Certifications etc., can be stored on the Blockchain where access could be given to the relevant stakeholders as per their extent of participation. The information on the Blockchain also be used for credit rating of the parties involved. Similar to the vendor-manufacturer-bank relationship, a manufacturer-dealer-bank relationship could also be maintained on the same Blockchain network. So, when the manufacturer delivers the inventory to the dealer, the same bank could make payment to the manufacturer on behalf of the dealer or adjust it against the loan amount provided earlier.

When multiple banks are part of the Blockchain network, parties in the supply chain like vendor, manufacturer, dealer could go for competitive rates for the credit offered. Banks in turn could assess the credit-worthiness of the supply chain participants as all the documentation in immutable form would be available on the Blockchain. Also, as different banks can offer credit to different stakeholders, banks in a Blockchain network can “talk” to each other to “Pay Off” the loans based on the approval provided by the stakeholders. In effect, the entire cash flow of the supply chain can be managed by the related banks in the Blockchain network while the stakeholders like vendors, manufacturers and dealers can focus on their core competency of making and selling products rather than a non-core competency of cash flow management.

By using emerging technologies like Blockchain and Open APIs, banks can be more than a passive actor (as a lender), become real-time participants and assess credit-worthiness of a business, and in effect help manage the cash flow. Banks can also take pricing decisions based on the real-time information from the operations (through IoT) of the supply chain.

In God we trust, all others must bring data. – W. Edwards Deming

But can we trust the data that is brought in? With the advent of blockchain technology which uses cryptographic algorithms to secure transactions and link them with previous transactions, we can now trust the data which is stored in a decentralised ledger.

Businesses conduct and perform transactions with several agents, partners, and intermediaries every day. Although they have appropriate systems and processes in place, a lot of the exchange relies on trust among all the parties involved. These exchanges that require the participating entities to follow a protocol and process turn out to be extremely time and cost intensive. But now businesses seem to have found an answer to these challenges in Blockchain, which allows them to form and participate in networks and exchange information in real-time. It addresses the key issue of trust and also reduces transaction time and cost.

Thinking about the merits of the technology led me to explore potential use cases:

Above are some of the challenges the technology can address.

Businesses have begun inviting a diverse set of members across industries to participate in the blockchain revolution, the success of which depends on its participants. Each participant has a complete version of the database which they can view and to which they can add transactions.  Whenever a transaction happens in the network it needs to be approved by a majority of participants making it difficult for a few participants to hack the system or entities to gain unauthorised access. It helps maintain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. As soon as a transaction is approved, the ledger or database that all the network participants have access to, is updated. It removes the intermediaries in the system as there is no longer a need to maintain a central database of transactions. All this ensures increased transparency in doing business.

The challenges that customers face in receiving visa on time and delay in business travel because of delay in communication between the parties involved can be resolved as all parties are part of a network and there is increased visibility to track the application status. Customers need not rely on a third party to book a hotel in a foreign destination by performing a credit card transaction. They can simply choose the option as per their convenience and make payment as and when required. The hotel is also informed in real-time about the verification and validation of customer – whether the customer is a bona fide customer and part of the network. It also makes global fund transfers convenient to carry out since no third party is required to transfer the funds deposited with them to a customer’s account in another country. The result? Seamless transactions and experiences across countries and currencies.

Infosys Finacle’s 2019 Banking Trends report predicts the consortium trend to pick up speed with both single-industry and cross-industry alliances emerging to form blockchain ecosystems. Multi-industry consortia are expected to be the best consortium model for a broad and diverse ecosystem. As per the report, blockchain adoption will also spur growth in adjacent technologies such as Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, as the industry is expected to use blockchain in combination with other technologies to maximize its impact.

Blockchain applications will transform financial services, simplify business models with positive impact in the area of user and customer experience. It will also ensure transparency across stakeholders with the possibility and ability to track transactions from end-to-end. The industry is expected to benefit greatly from faster transactions and lower transaction costs.

Software applications like email and messenger have become an integral part of our personal and work life. We cannot imagine a life without e-commerce online portals or mobile applications. Our reliance on mobile and online applications for easy transfer of funds or bill payments continues to increase too. Data records generated from the slew of applications and devices are stored in data centers or cloud. With the rise of sophisticated hacking techniques, the underlying assumption that a software executes what is expected and doesn’t what is not is beginning to dispel. Security breaches and malicious incidents are evidence of the increasingly smart and creative cyber criminals out there looking to exploit vulnerabilities. The repercussions are multifold – loss of customers, market cap, financial losses because of data loss, and costs associated with the efforts that go into responding to the breach and recovering trust. Clearly, security is a key concern for any digital business, and a business cannot claim to be a truly digital organization if its applications are not secure.

Organizations must follow certain security guidelines to mitigate the risks associated with new age cyber threats, to be sustainable and customer-centric. A data-centric approach to security is required because of the sheer value of customer data for a business. Businesses need to constantly ask questions such as:

The above questions ensure confidentiality/privacy, integrity and availability of data. More commonly known as the CIA triad which forms the basis of many security guidelines.

Additionally, businesses need to ask questions like:

Being well versed with current trends in cybersecurity and assessing new cyber threats are also some of the factors essential for a secure and successful business venture.

Many organizations have a security incident response team to initiate necessary action in the event of a security breach. They identify vulnerabilities by monitoring data, analyze the incident to understand the breach and take the necessary action to resolve the incident. Advanced machine learning techniques can understand normal system behavior, detect deviations and assess risk. This, combined with the knowledge of hacking techniques helps detect unusual user and database activity. Unusual usage patterns can help determine the cause of the breach. Access credentials to various resources can be restricted and passwords reset.

Adequate security measures need to be considered regularly while building software solutions as the cost of addressing security incidents continues to increase substantially. It is imperative to consider security aspects during software development and testing to identify if the software is doing only what it is intended to do. There is no room for complacency.

Infosys Finacle’s 2019 Banking Trends report talks about the new threats likely to arise due to extensive use of digital technologies – particularly AI and Machine Learning – in cyber-attacks. Cheaper computing power and availability of open source algorithms if misused, can have severe consequences for businesses including banks. Banks will invest in security talent and use a combination of technologies across threat intelligence, data leak prevention, user behavior analytics, access management and cloud security, to combat the rising threat from technologically advanced hacking methods.

I’d conclude by echoing the popular view, “Security is a journey, not a destination”. Indeed.

“When you cannot change the direction of the wind, adjust your sails” is a familiar phrase which rings very true in so many instances in life. We encounter and experience it ever so often at the workplace too.

We see clients elevating their expectations and requirements from us. We personally elevate our game and increase our standards daily and hourly. Well, nearly. We cannot control this change; neither do we have any option but to relent to it. To keep pace with the changing world, we have to adapt and mature ourselves in every way. Innovation needs acceptance at a personal level. And as a workforce we need to align ourselves to the change around us and demonstrate it – Innovation in the DNA of the organization is the need of the hour, and workforce of an organization has an important role to play in making that happen.

• Best practices for managing a multi-generational workforce in enterprises

“Synergy” is a key attribute of any high-performing team, and we all as a unit must focus to equip ourselves with it and incorporate it in our work culture. Each person has a different talent and different intensity levels. One might be good in a particular dimension while someone else in another. But when working together as one team, the output of team-work brings together the advantages of both the individuals’ talents and potentials. This way a team can achieve higher and better results which are definitely not possible without harnessing synergies and working together.

Younger generations have high levels of energy, single-pointed focus, zeal to accomplish, more scope for action, a need for fame, a pride for showcasing their talent and lesser diversions.

Older generations are a treasure of vision, high levels of confidence, open mindedness, client-facing experience, hands-on and on-the-field experience, greater trouble shooting and problem solving thinking owing to the number of occurrences of problems they have stumbled on or been exposed to. They possess the ability to think in terms of the big picture and co-relate every small and big element to it, aiding the progress of the team in the right direction.

Thus, a combination of these two categories of workforce is becoming increasingly vital for success. Success requires all of us to be cognizant of the advantages we can reap by having such a multi-generational workforce in our projects and making the maximum of each other in the team.

We should make this a practice and keep this in mind while putting a team together for any project. Benefits of a multigenerational workforce are unequivocally manifold and concrete.

• Talent models in the digital future

We live in the digital era where everyone is digitally savvy and it won’t be an exaggeration to say that things cease to exist if they are not present on digital platforms. Every day, technology has new concepts to offer to us to learn and use. Clients insist and prefer teams which have a flair for using as much digital technologies as possible to create value and benefit the business. It is the status quo. And the need for providing best services is the top priority for anyone part of a viable business.

Individuals now have to equip themselves with the latest technologies and are expected to have the open-mindedness to embrace new technologies and implement them in their work. They should be able to easily see the common features and identify the gaps and build their capabilities on them.

Equally important is the quality of knowledge we acquire about these technologies. It should always be a strong foundation without any compromise on quality. The fact that we are learning so many new things should not weaken our intelligence and absorbing capabilities and we should never end up being a “Jack of all trades and master of none”!

Knowledge of a technology might come into action or be put to use after very many years but still our knowledge levels should be sound. And burnishing it from time to time instead of getting trained from scratch has huge advantages. Only then the time, the effort, the context and the money we put in are worthy of the person-hours and capital invested.

• Attracting and retaining the best talent – recruitment and culture

Best talent comprises people who know themselves well – they know their potential and develop themselves on many aspects of their career. Such people are able to get along with the trending technologies, and are able to add value in any place at any company. They are able to meet the desired and expected satisfaction levels of any workplace.

Getting such talent to a workplace and being able to use their talent for benefit of the business is a talent in itself! Recruitment teams should look for such talent and their inspection levels should go beyond academics and communication. It should include the work-attitude predominantly.

Along with recruitment, being able to retain such talent as well is a worthy of the management’s effort. Employee satisfaction means a lot these days. Work anywhere is appealing for good talented people. For them a company does not matter much if it is only work that motivates them.

Many people have the potential but lack a sense of direction and guidance. To help them tap their potential, the rest of us in the workforce should aid them with various training programs both technically and psychologically. Teachings and guidance levied by our own management gurus like Chanakya can benefit remarkably.

As we know “Justice delayed is justice denied”. Similarly, timely recognition of talent is extremely vital.

Remote workforce as well should be included here without fail.

• Changing workforce and talent in banking

Banking is also undergoing a lot of changes and the pace with which disruption is unfolding is also very high. To cope with the ongoing disruption, we need to have our eyes and ears open to see the change, be the change and many a times make the change happen. Having the right workforce strategy, the optimal mix of people, and the appropriate talented resources can help a business survive and thrive. The right talent-mix and retaining the talented workforce are key, and every organization should not only be aware of this but also demonstrate and promote it widely at the workplace. Talent and work culture together define the way we get along at a company. And the compounding effect of these crucial elements make a real difference to our world!

As digital transactions increasingly pervade our lives, the threats arising from fraudsters in the form of phishing, hacking, spamming, password stealing etc., the risk of exploitation of the inherent vulnerabilities of software has increased manifold. In fact, anti-virus programs and cyber-security software are as much a growing industry as the emerging technologies that they seek to protect from the ever growing “threat industry”. There is a predator-prey game underway, akin to one in the natural world where natural selection continually equips both prey and predator to evolve into more powerful species. But when it comes to cyber security, there is no scope for random protection, because the cost of insufficient protection could be catastrophic.

Cyber-security in banks can be implemented at multiple levels, including securing the transaction itself or enabling adequate security at the user level which seems to be the most vulnerable point in a transaction. Secure protocols (e.g. https, ssl) are de facto built into banking applications these days and they make transactions secure by providing encryption. But it is at the user level that cyber security needs the most stringent implementation. Because the user typically resorts to using login and password on a device, it is vulnerable to snooping, caching of passwords and other forms of stealing the details. This kind of authentication is called one factor or knowledge factor authentication and for this the user must know the login and password. Since login and passwords can be stolen by various means, a 2-factor authentication should be employed to secure them robustly. The second factor goes by the name of Possession factor which refers to what the user must have in their possession to logon. This could be a token in the form of OTP received on a mobile phone or obtained using devices like Secure ID.

For even greater security threats, a strategy could be to secure the device or the user logon screen itself from unauthorized access by using the user’s biometric data like finger print or iris scan or voice recognition. This 3rd level of authentication is called Inherence factor authentication.

A fourth level of authentication for increased security can be considered, albeit at the risk of inconveniencing the user. The fourth factor is called the Location factor, and it involves using the user’s location which is most likely afforded by the GPS on the logon device, typically the mobile phone. So by combining, geography, biology, technology and user-defined ways, cyber-security can be increased many times over, as each additional layer only makes it harder to hack even if one layer is prone to be breach.

In general, adding more layers of security increases security, and cyber-security is headed in the direction of adding it by disparate means. While this is well intentioned, it will be cumbersome for the customer if the authentication results in too many false negatives. We often see that due to bugs in the decoding software or lack of robustness on the sensing devices, detection by iris or voice or fingerprint can erroneously lead to access not getting granted. This is issue that banks may have to confront in the days to come as cyber-threats loom large and banks have the unenviable task of both securing the customer logon and giving the customer a friction-free transaction experience.