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Innovating identity and access management in financial services

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The financial services industry is changing rapidly as digital transformation enables new possibilities and changes in the way we access our banks, engage with insurance companies, and interact with capital market firms. Financial platforms and services are increasingly able to integrate with every facet of an individual’s life. This increased access also means more data and a greater need for trust between companies and customers that this data will be safe. Financial service providers must continue to increase their security and privacy abilities to meet these requirements.

To learn more about how financial services institutions are innovating identity and access, download our white paper.

Digital disruptions drive new technology

New financial technology firms are disrupting the model of traditional financial service providers by taking advantage of new technologies and increasing amounts of accessible data to deliver an enhanced customer experience. These digital disruptions to traditional models have led to the creation of new technologies—such as decentralized identity—which have the potential to alter the industry’s paradigm further. With more and more of our work and even our personal lives happening in the digital space, this innovation shows no signs of slowing down.

With increasing competition from these new, digitally-agile, financial technology firms—capable of setting up customers in seconds through quick, digital onboarding experiences—banks and other financial service providers have been scrambling to keep pace. The variety of options for consumers and the accompanying ease of signing up has significantly lowered the cost of switching, forcing the industry to ramp up the integration of digital services.

Cloud ecosystems and digital identity

This contest between traditional providers and new financial technology firms has resulted in expanding cloud ecosystems for financial services. The services that form these ecosystems are customer-centric and can offer unified value propositions that extend far beyond past financial service offerings to reduce customer costs, increase convenience, and provide new tools and services. These services are also leading to the creation of large, richly-varied pools of data that companies can use to target new offerings and services effectively.

To better compete, traditional financial institutions need to enable their own digital ecosystems by integrating third-party services, improving customer onboarding, and delivering differentiated customer experiences. To do that in the cloud, they need safe and secure digital identity.

Addressing the challenge of modern identity

Microsoft understands that managing modern identity is a challenge for many organizations, regardless of industry. We recognize the heightened stakes for financial services firms especially. Microsoft is working with our customers to prepare them for the future by addressing their security needs with scalable products and services for identity and authentication.

Learn more

For additional details on our perspective of this important topic, download our white paper, “Crossing the digital threshold: identity and access innovation in financial services.” To access additional resources and learn more about how Microsoft supports the financial services industry, visit our banking, capital markets, and insurance pages.