Here’s What’s Wrong with Banking Authentication (And How to Fix It)

We need to stop making end users pay for a broken banking authentication process.

In the two decades plus that I’ve spent working in cybersecurity and fraud prevention, I’ve seen end-user authentication processes take wrong turn after wrong turn. Everyone wants strong authentication, but there’s an increasingly large usability cost being levied on end users proportional to the security they get in return. 

Our industry agrees that identity is a primary target for fraudsters via attack vectors like credential stuffing, social engineering, email phishing, and infostealers, among others. 

So we add step-up authentication, and customers abandon transactions. We implement risk scoring, and we end up with complex orchestration nightmares. We deploy OTP codes, and fraudsters execute SIM swaps. No one knows the exact economic cost of these measures, but my hunch is it’s in the billions globally. 

Every added verification step or interruption reduces the likelihood of legitimate transactions of any kind. Identity controls are being layered on instead of baked in as they should be. Real people, and the businesses they interact with, are paying the price.

At IronVest, we decided it was time to completely rethink authentication to solve this challenge. 

In this article, I want to share how our ActionID technology solves this paradox by delivering what we call "uninterrupted in-action MFA," a continuous authentication solution that's completely immune to fraud while actually improving the user experience.

From Broken MFA Flows to Continuous Invisible Authentication 

The breakthrough that makes continuous authentication possible is a technology we call ActionID. 

Unlike traditional biometric systems, which capture a user’s face at a single point in time, ActionID uses screen action biometrics to continuously monitor both a user’s facial biometrics and their screen activity, creating a sealed binding between their identity and intended actions.

This continuous protection relies on three processes working seamlessly in sync:

1. Continuous Facial Authentication: Using the device's camera, ActionID continuously captures and analyzes facial biometrics throughout the transaction, not just at login. Our advanced algorithms handle real-world conditions, such as different lighting or users wearing glasses or even partially covering their faces momentarily, while still maintaining authentication.

2. Screen Content Verification: Simultaneously, ActionID captures what the user actually sees on their screen and what they’re typing. This creates an immutable record of their transaction that can't be manipulated by malware, man-in-the-middle attacks, or session hijacking.

3. Real-Time Binding: The magic happens when the above two data streams are cryptographically bound together. When a user submits a transaction, ActionID can provide a Boolean answer: "Yes, this was the real user, they saw exactly what you [the bank] received, and nothing was manipulated."

Rich Data Analysis, Powerful Fraud Prevention, and Extreme Privacy 

One of the first questions we get when introducing the continuous screen-action biometrics behind our Authentic Action solution is: “What about user privacy?”

It’s a great question, and one that we are more than happy to answer. 

User privacy is actually a core benefit of our approach, rather than a limitation. 

While ActionID uses continuous biometric monitoring, it’s designed from the ground up to protect users’ personal data. Here’s how:

• Biometric data never leaves the user’s device in raw form.

• ActionID processes biometric information locally. It only transmits encrypted, anonymized mathematical representations that cannot be reverse-engineered to reconstruct the original biometric data.

This is known as zero-knowledge architecture. It ensures that even IronVest itself cannot access or reconstruct users' biometric information.

Furthermore, IronVest also:

• Employs ephemeral processing so biometric captures are analyzed in real-time and immediately discarded after verification. 

• Never permanently stores facial images or biometric templates that could potentially be breached or misused.

This privacy-driven approach means that, with IronVest, banks can deploy advanced biometric authentication without creating a surveillance system or adding regulatory risk. 

Users get an unparalleled level of confidence that their data remains theirs. 

Less Fraud Or Better User Experience. Why Not Both?

For years, digital banking has been stuck in a false tradeoff: stronger security meant a worse user experience, and smoother experiences often meant weaker protection.

At IronVest, we’ve broken that cycle. Our redefined authentication technology means that banks no longer have to choose between preventing fraud and delighting users.

The best way to understand IronVest benefits is to try a demo.

But to give you a high-level overview of what IronVest does better than status quo solutions, I’ve broken down our response to the challenge of re-inventing authentication into three core benefits:

1. A totally revolutionized user experience

We are especially proud of what ActionID does to the banking authentication user experience. Let me explain how and why.

First, we take away Step-Up Authentication. Traditional fraud prevention requires complex orchestration. When a user attempts to send money, the system calculates a risk score. If the score's too high, the user is redirected to additional authentication steps. With ActionID, there's no need for this friction because we're already continuously verifying the user throughout the transaction.

And verification is done deterministically, not statistically. For the user, this means fewer false positives. Instead of risk scores that require interpretation and orchestration, ActionID provides a simple Boolean response: the transaction is either valid or it isn't. 

The authentication process is the same on every channel (in person, online, in app, etc.). So whether customers are using web, mobile, or even interacting through manual channels (like calling their relationship manager), ActionID provides consistent protection. Our "magic link" technology can even extend biometric protection to phone-based transactions.

Perhaps the most important feature from a UX perspective is our invisibility. From the user's perspective, ActionID is barely there. It just works. They might see a small camera indicator or avatar, but there's no additional workflow, no codes to enter, no secondary devices required. The security is built into the natural flow of using the application.

1. Fraud prevention instead of just detection

We bring the same level of innovation to fraud prevention that we do to the user experience.

Our system is totally immune to account takeover. Because we're continuously validating the user's presence and biometrics, fraudsters can't take over a session even if they've compromised credentials, executed SIM swaps, or bypassed initial authentication.

We also make transaction manipulation effectively impossible. Real-time screen capture and form field monitoring enable us to detect if malware is altering transaction details, a man-in-the-middle attack is occurring, or if the user is viewing information that differs from what the bank receives.

Unlike traditional systems that trust a session after login, ActionID continuously checks for signs of compromise, monitoring behavioral anomalies, device changes, and biometric inconsistencies throughout the session.

We also stop deepfakes and AI-powered fraud in real time. Our multi-algorithm approach combines deepfake detection, liveness verification, and spoofing prevention.

And by verifying identities on both sides of a transaction, we prevent a wide range of scams before they can even start.

1. Operational ease saving banks millions in fraud losses, data processing, and customer churn costs 

IronVest quickly gives banks a net positive ROI.

The immediate financial benefit to banks using IronVest is the dramatically lower operational cost compared to traditional fraud detection stacks. 

Our customers can save millions of dollars each year when using IronVest compared to alternative solutions, as we simplify banking infrastructure and remove the need for a complex fraud orchestration system. 

We immediately remove the need for risk scoring engines with complex configuration, replacing them with a simple API that returns a Boolean answer. 

In the longer term, our banking customers can improve their bottom-line revenue by a) decreasing customer churn due to lower transaction abandonment and b) reducing fraud losses.

We also simplify regulatory compliance (and speed up dispute resolution) by creating a clear and transparent audit trail. 

IronVest Is On a Mission to Deliver Better Authentication

I see ActionID as the foundation for a new generation of financial services that are both more secure and more convenient. We're already extending the technology to support manual channels, wealth management scenarios, and even in-person transactions.

Our goal at IronVest is to help build a world where customers are happy and safe, and where authentication does not get in the way of the transactions people need and want to make.

We are committed to developing the best possible application of biometric technology.

Ready to see how this approach could transform your bank’s authentication experience?  

Get a demo of IronVest today and discover what truly frictionless security looks like.