The Andera Blog

As a college student, I feel like it's impossible to get a bank to trust me. I understand that banks need to prioritize security to protect themselves and their customers from fraud. Still, nothing is more frustrating than having a bank tell me they don't believe that I'm me.

I have a thin credit file. I've never borrowed from a bank, never accumulated debt. I have, however, paid regular and timely rent payments, cell phone bills, utilities, etc. I am a reliable and trustworthy customer. Unfortunately, banks don't usually check for those forms of credit, so I often get rejected on the basis that they don't have enough information on me to determine my trustworthiness.

I'm not the only one. According to FICO, 33 million adult Americans also have...

In the Wild Wild West atmosphere of the early internet era, companies raced to slap websites online without thinking too hard about what purpose their website should ultimately serve.  Consumer retail companies found their ROI in online shopping, and their websites gradually evolved to draw visitors in and drive them to checkout.  In contrast, financial institutions focused on expanding eServices, until their websites became little more than portals to online banking.  

In the last few years, we've seen institutions start to wise up to a second, essential function of the online channel.  As Joe Swatek from ACTON marketing said, "Your website has an important SALES...

Also known as the 80-20 rule, the pareto principle says that for many cases, about 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. I think that the pareto principle applies to user experience in financial services in at least three ways:

1) 80% of users use 20% of use cases

Trick question: when users navigate to your website, where do they go? 80% or more of the time they go directly to your online banking login. That means they ignore your homepage, don't read your special offers, and don't see anything on your product pages.

The Organized Cybercriminal

The organized cybercriminal hacks for one reason: profit. They pose the greatest risk to most finanical institutions, because they want social security numbers, online banking credentials, credit card information, and other sensitve sensitive data, which after stealing they systematically use to steal your customer's money. And they're organized; they can distribute data packages or hacking guides to a wide net and attack from many angles.

Like many of my coworkers and peers, when I want to listen to music at work I usually tune into Pandora's free internet radio.  A few days ago while I was changing stations I noticed an unusual advertisement.

BankNewport is an Andera client, so I excitedly grabbed a screenshot. The advertisement was interesting for two reasons. 

1) The Medium

I don't usually see advertisements for financial institutions on Pandora, (usually I just get ads for shoes)