In order to make the transition from code cards to safer internet banking authorisation tools easier for the public, Citadele bank in Latvia offered the option of connecting the MobileSCAN authorisation solution to internet banking from the 30th of June. MobileSCAN allows users to log into online banking using a mobile phone or tablet rather than a code card or calculator.
From April 1st, 2017, code cards will no longer be seen as a sufficiently secure authorisation tool because the codes are not unique - they can reoccur. Requirements for financial market participants anticipate that code cards will have a limited payment ceiling.
For those clients whose priorities are ease of payments, security, and larger payment limits, Citadele in Latvia is already offering a change from code cards to the safer payment authorisation tool MobileSCAN. MobileSCAN is the authorisation tool built into the Citadele mobile application.
“Until now, Citadele clients could only connect to MobileSCAN in a bank branch, but this can now be done virtually. Therefore, we predict that more and more people will use this convenient authorisation method which allows all internet transactions to be authorised with a mobile phone or tablet with no need for a code card or calculator,” said Citadele board member Kaspars Cikmačs. For those choosing to make payments through the Citadele mobile application, signing into internet banking with this new authorisation tool is especially convenient - by merely entering the user’s name, password and PIN code. Furthermore, in the near future this will be possible by entering only the PIN code.
“Both client activity and surveys show that mobile devices are used more and more often to access internet banking through the bank’s mobile app. Since the beginning of the year, the number of mobile app users in Latvia is 2.5 times larger,” says K. Cikmačs.
Citadele, together with SKDS, surveyed 1005 Latvian internet users. 96% of those surveyed used online banking on a computer, 27% on their mobile phones, and 14% on their tablets. Meanwhile, 40% of those surveyed said that they would prefer to use something other than code cards: for example, a virtual code calculator integrated into their mobile device. The most interest in this was shown by those up to the age of 44.
“The bank’s challenge was to unite the mobile app with an online banking authorisation tool,” says K. Cikmačs. The new app is connected to MobileSCAN. Approximately 500,000 euro was invested in creating the new app and linking it with MobileSCAN.