CASE STUDY: GARANTI BANK – IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PREVENTING FRAUD WITH INNOVATIVE WIRELESS BANKING SOLUTIONS

Garanti Bank is the third largest private bank in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Turkey.  Operating in an extremely competitive global environment, improving customer retention and reducing fraud to increase the bank’s margins has become a top priority.  Garanti turned to MasterCard and mBlox to devise a fraud detection and alerting system that has been able to stop fraud in real-time and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in less than one year.

“Finally a fraud alert system that can immediately provide customers with the critical information necessary to detect fraud.”
-Koray Turfan, Fraud and Security Manager

Goals
The bank knew that its customers needed a way of staying informed of the daily banking activities, in an easy, non-invasive way – wherever they were in the world. The answer was to send information and alerts (including fraud alerts) via text messages direct to its customers’ mobile phones. Now customers can check the balance of their account, monitor the due dates and balances of credit cards, request a loan, top up their mobile phone and even transfer money – all through their mobile phone.

Solution
Until recently, Garanti Bank relied on expensive call centers with manual processes to handle alerts for high-risk transactions. Being able to stop fraud at its earliest stage has been crucial to Garanti - not only to decrease risk of multiple frauds and fraud losses but also to improve consumer confidence and loyalty. The solution is delivered by the combination of two leaders in their field, Aristion, MasterCard’s cutting edge fraud prevention application, and mBlox, the world’s largest mobile transaction network. This system simply enables Garanti to alert customers immediately to any high-risk transaction taking place on their account. Once an unusual transaction has been identified by the bank, Garanti’s customers immediately receive an SMS message to verify their transaction. If the consumer believes a fraudulent transaction has been committed, the bank can be notified to block further activity. This speed of response means cards can be blocked in a matter of minutes, reducing the number of fraudulent transactions and the impact for the bank and the customer. Furthermore, creating an early detection system with automated alerts also frees up time for call center staff who are able to deal with other urgent requests.

Results
The benefits offered by MasterCard together with mBlox’s worldwide connectivity have been numerous. Not only has Garanti Bank been able to prevent $403,000 of fraud within a year of the launch, but by detecting fraud early the bank has also enhanced customer satisfaction and confidence. In addition, by delivering a cost effective way of detecting fraud Garanti has been able to cut communications costs, yet remain one step ahead of their competitors.

“Since the initial roll out we have seen 99.92% customer satisfaction reported through our call center.”
-Koray Turfan, Fraud and Security Manager

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