Customer Experience Starts with Trust: Why Identity Verification Matters More Than Ever

Sandra Bower, SVP of Customer Experience, Intellicheck

As VP of Customer Experience, my focus is laser-sharp: building and sustaining a relationship of profound trust between our company and our clients. Yet, the lessons we learn in the identity verification space are universal, particularly for financial institutions. If you distill the essence of the customer experience in banking or financial services, it starts and ends with a single, crucial element: trust.

Because money is fundamentally personal. When customers entrust a financial institution with their hard-earned assets, they are placing confidence in that organization to protect not just their account balance but their future security. Without this foundational trust, a customer’s entire relationship is colored by anxiety, not confidence.

The Pillars of Sustained Trust

Why does the customer experience begin with trust?

Trust is the foundation of every strong relationship—personal or financial.

It combines three key elements:

• integrity (believing someone will act fairly and with good intentions),
• dependability (knowing they’ll follow through on their promises), and
• confidence (trusting in their ability to deliver).

In banking, where money is deeply personal and customers expect security and respect, trust is earned through consistent, transparent experiences. Financial institutions build this trust through four core pillars of customer experience:

1. providing a seamless and consistent journey across every channel (branch, web, and mobile);
2. offering fast, friction-free onboarding with clear communication about identity verification and simplified, automated processes;
3. reducing fraud and ensuring compliance by using authoritative data sources like DMV and government databases; and
4. maintaining strong resolution and support when issues arise, ensuring customers feel heard and protected.

When banks align these pillars, they do more than meet expectations—they build lasting loyalty. And yet, in today's digital-first environment, one of the most powerful builders of mutual trust is often overlooked: identity verification.

The Necessity of Mutual Trust

Banks can signal this mutual trust by offering minimal friction in onboarding and transactions—quick account opening, streamlined processes. This is where effective identity verification becomes a crucial, positive experience component.

When a teller asks for your state-issued ID before assisting with a transaction, or when an online application requires you to verify your identity, that isn't a sign of distrust; it’s a sign of diligence. It communicates to the legitimate customer: "We are serious about security, and we are protecting your account from fraudsters." It creates an environment where the customer feels secure, which is the ultimate expression of care. Furthermore, this diligence is essential for meeting critical Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance standards, signaling that you are a responsible, regulated entity.

Account Takeover: Where Trust Is Broken

Account Takeover (ATO) fraud is still a major problem across the financial landscape. According to the Association of Certified Financial Examiners, ATO fraud ranked as the second-highest type of fraud in 2024. The cost isn't just the monetary loss; it’s the profound loss of customer confidence. When an institution loses control of a customer's account, the customer is frustrated by the recovery process, may have lost private information, and could have suffered credit damage. They are very likely to leave, and definitely less inclined to do more business with the organization that failed to protect them. The data is sobering: ATO fraud cost US adults approximately $15.6 billion in 2024.

Beyond the financial hit, the legal and regulatory complications of failing to protect customer data—such as non-compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)—expose institutions to fines and lawsuits, further eroding public trust.

Intellicheck: Powering Trust Through Identity Verification

This is where Intellicheck steps in to help financial institutions build and maintain that vital customer trust through fast and accurate identity verification. We are trusted by some of the largest U.S.banks and credit card issuers, deployed in over 8,000 bank branches, and power online verification.

Our key differentiator lies in our unique technique for scanning and analyzing the hidden, proprietary data within the North American Barcode on state-issued IDs. While other vendors can only read the cleartext—which is easily reproducible by a fraudster—Intellicheck uniquely analyzes the deep, secure layers of the barcode data.

This technique allows us to detect fake and altered IDs in under one second, providing a trusted, real-time experience. Our service is designed to authoritatively identify identity threats while minimizing false negatives, ensuring a frictionless, trustworthy process for the legitimate customer.

We go beyond the barcode by delivering accurate ID-to-person matching. We validate the ID, match the ID to the person presenting it (often through biometric authentication like selfie checks), and conduct risk scoring using third-party data—all in under a second with industry-leading accuracy. This holistic approach helps prevent account takeovers, stops new account fraud, and ensures compliance with KYC and other regulations.

For a customer, this means a faster, more secure experience. For a financial institution, it means confidence that you are onboarding and serving a verified, legitimate customer. In a world increasingly defined by digital interactions and escalating fraud, the proactive defense offered by modern identity verification isn't a hurdle—it is the ultimate expression of security, care, and a promise that your customer’s trust is well-placed. When you prioritize strong identity verification, you fundamentally prioritize the integrity of your customer experience.

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