Keeping our customers digitally secure

Mobile apps have become fundamental to many people’s lives. They’re now an essential offering of banking services, giving customers control of their finances and the freedom to bank where and when they want to.

With nearly 10 million customers regularly using our mobile banking service, we know how important digital security is. We’ve invested significantly in digital security and our mobile banking apps are built with sophisticated levels of protection.

Despite this, new scams emerge every day and fraudsters are learning new and inventive ways to exploit customers’ vulnerabilities, with potentially devastating financial and emotional impacts.

It’s not always easy for customers to know what they can do to protect themselves. That’s why in 2023 we created Security Profile, a dedicated space in our mobile banking app where customers can see how we safeguard them and what they can do to stay secure.

Security Profile shows customers steps they can take to improve their security, such as setting controls like transaction notifications and turning on biometric approvals. We’ve also added personalised education to help customers avoid fraud and scams. 

Our approach to developing Security Profile has customers at its heart, and I’ve worked closely with our Digital Security and Fraud colleagues, along with many other teams from across the bank, to respond to our customers’ needs and feedback.

This work has included improving our biometric approvals to make them more secure and easier to use. We’ve enhanced these features to better spot things such as deep fake technology that could be used in fraudulent transactions. We’ve also removed the need for customers to blink when they use the feature, making it more accessible to people who can’t complete this action.

Being part of such important work is something I really value. It’s hugely rewarding to know about the impact these features have on our customers and the difference they make in helping us to prevent fraud.