If the success of a business relationship is based on trust between the parties, it is even more so in the financial services sector. For clients, trust is one of the most important things when choosing a bank or financial product. As co-founder of Hyperion, one of my priorities is to earn the trust of our users. To that end, I share three things that we are focusing on to achieve that goal:
Security
In the cyber world, security and trust are almost antonyms. It is not just about protecting sensitive information or access to mobilizing money. In the financial sector, you have to follow many regulations to be in compliance and avoid fraud. In 2020 $32 billion were lost globally due to payment fraud, and that number is increasing. This is why many traditional banks are perceived as distrustful of their clients; they are subject to the demands of regulatory agencies and battling fraud attempts. Banks are not the only ones that lose. In the United States, 77% of merchants were victims of some type of payment fraud.
With Hyperion, we want to improve the user experience without sacrificing security or compliance. How will we achieve this on a digital platform? Among the things we are doing are:
- Security Architecture - Our technology will meet the security guides required by regulators, but we will not stop there. We have incorporated security into the Hyperion design to monitor, limit, and isolate access to information. We have multiple ideas on authentication, encryption, monitoring, identity verification, and fraud mitigation without impacting the user experience. That said, security will always be the priority.
- Experienced Partners - We have partnered with Fintech and security providers to cover identity verification, anti-money laundering systems, fraud detection, and data protection. By integrating their strengths to Hyperion, we can leverage their expertise for compliance and being agile in our development.
- Process Innovation - By digitizing our processes, we can securely give our users greater control and visibility of their accounts. We can also respond faster to suspicious activity and automate actions based on potentially fraudulent events and patterns. The limit here is our ingenuity.
Relation
Not surprisingly, clients with little connection to their bank are more likely to switch institutions. Millennials, the emerging entrepreneurs, are the least likely to form these relationships. It is critical to establish close relationships, listen to their challenges and understand the behavior of their businesses. For example, we learned in our surveys that one of the things most desired by SMB owners is having a holistic view of their business finances.
Hyperion will grow from these relations. To establish these relationships, we will have communication channels integrated into our application to support customers and receive feedback on opportunities. This feedback will enable us to make improvements fast and provide products and suggestions that fit their financial needs. Another critical aspect of relationships is transparency. Our goal is to be as clear as possible with our clients; this includes being upfront on how we generate money, terms and services, not hiding fees, and how we handle information, to mention a few things.
Privacy
Privacy is a crucial area to me personally. Personal data is often not treated with the respect it deserves. I do not understand how companies are still requesting copies of sensitive identification documents through emails or messaging apps like WhatsApp. I have no certainty on how my documents are handled, secured and who has access to them. Nor do I like to receive promotional emails because someone or some company "shared" my email.
Our proposal with Hyperion is simple: you own your data. We will not share customer information with third parties except for regulatory purposes. The collection of data to personalize and improve services will be consensual and at the user's discretion. Internally we will also pay attention to how your information is handled. We will use “tokenization” to avoid exposing personal information when doing data analysis. Access to such information is highly monitored and controlled. Only certain trained personnel with justified reasons will have access to personal information when required by regulation or with customer approval when we are assisting them.
At the end of the day, trust will manifest itself as we demonstrate that we can deliver what we are proposing. There is no substitute for this. As our clients use Hyperion and they fall in love with the platform, trust will grow organically.
We recognize the great responsibility of becoming an essential service for our clients' operation and financial well-being. That is why we are working hard to provide a robust and attractive solution. Trust us; we are doing everything in our hands to deserve your trust and establish a lasting relationship.
Connect with Hector via LinkedIn and Twitter.
