Radius Bank – March 2020

Cybersecurity in the digital age

TUDY

ing personal and business products and services.

Radius decided to create the best possible digital and most innovative fintech products on the market.

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RADIUS BANK

Joe Mancini, Chief Information Security Officer at Radius Bank, on how the company made a shift to digital five years ago and what that has meant for its cybersecurity

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he American digital banking space has historically fallen behind the wider world’s innovations. Radius Bank seeks to correct

that. It specialises in partnering with fintechs to provide industry-leading consumer and commercial offerings. Recently, it was named Best Online 04

Bank by Bankrate.com. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company has provided financial services for customers across the nation since 1987, when it was still called First Trade Union Bank.

The business assumed its current name in 2014, a decision that coincided with a major transformation that closed every brick-and-mortar branch except one and evolved it into a digital-first organisation.

Joe Mancini has been at Radius since 2016, overseeing information and cybersecurity across every facet of the bank and working closely with business lines, managing external partners, and ensuring appropriate protection on networks and assets. Mancini’s lifelong interest in cybersecurity has resulted in him working everywhere, from frontline protection at banks to interning at a local police department. With a special focus on cybercrime,

Customer Service Team in Boston, MA

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1987

Year founded

$100mn Revenue in US dollars

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RADIUS BANK

“ You find a vulnerability; you patch it before it’s exploited. We come at it from a more investigative background” 06

— Joe Mancini, Senior Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, Radius Bank

SVP, Operation Excellence; SVP, CISO; SVP, Treasurer; SVP, Customer Experience

he brings a unique perspective to his role. “My viewpoint tends to be ‘what is the visibility from a malicious actor standpoint, and how can we work from there?’,” Mancini explains. “Often, it tends to be a cat-and-mouse game.

You find a vulnerability; you patch it before it’s exploited. We come at it from a more investigative background.”

Mancini’s role includes a business enabling approach, seeking opportunities to help Radius grow. His team works closely with the virtual banking team to assess acquisitions and potential

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07 partnerships, while also keeping an

products and services to consumers

eye out for emerging technologies

and businesses.” Some partners play a

such as cryptocurrency.

major role in Radius’ risk prevention pro-

By partnering with fintechs, Radius

grammes; Alloy operates heavily within

drastically reduces its time to market

Radius’ fraud prevention space. Together,

and was able to rebuild its entire digital

the two companies rebuilt the model by

platform in a mere four months. “Our

which Radius judges the risk of potential

digital banking strategy is built around

customers, integrating a risk waterfall

fintech driven technology,” Mancini

with seven to eight checkpoints. With

explains. “Push products, gain custom-

the help of partners like Alloy, Radius

ers and create a frictionless experience.

Bank has been able to significantly

The biggest challenge is speed to market

decrease its fraudulent account open-

and flexibility. Aligning with partners

ings. The financial benefits have also

that provide the high-tech platforms

been high, while the technology costs

allows us to offer these industry-leading

of opening a new account decreased. w w w.ra di usba n k. com

RADIUS BANK

Radius Bank Security Team

08 Trust and shared values are at the core

approach rather than having risk seen

of Radius’ partnerships. “Speed to

as the roadblock.” This allows the

market is critical,” Mancini says, “but

risk team to catch problems before

we also need to understand there is risk

they happen, aligning with business

in the digital space. It’s about finding

partners while ensuring security

the right balance.”

compliance. “Proactively identifying

To ensure the highest standards of

potential risks and vulnerabilities is

cybersecurity, Radius Bank embeds

a critical component to the project

risk management into every stage of

lifecycle.” Mancini continues, “there

development. Banking is already a

is significant pressure to build and

highly regulated industry, but Radius

release products as quickly as pos-

goes further. “The risk team is involved

sible to remain competitive. Radius’

from day one in all these projects and

speed to market is industry leading,

partnerships,” Mancini states. “It’s

but we won’t roll out a product that

about building a business enabling

poses a risk to our customers.”

The key to implementing such a new system has been mutual trust between employees and executives. “It all goes back to culture,” notes Mancini. “You can have the best strategy in the world, but if your culture isn’t in line with that, you’re in trouble.” Team building starts from recruitment. Radius seeks out individuals whose values and mentality align with the bank’s, offering in turn a high-benefits, high-energy work environment. In order to attract talent, Radius ensures its offerings are 09 E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Joe Mancini Joe Mancini is the Senior Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer at Radius Bank, an industry leading digital first bank, headquartered in Boston, MA. In his role, Joe develops and implements a forward thinking, business enabling approach to information and cybersecurity that supports Radius’ fast-paced, tech driven approach. Prior to his role at Radius, Joe spent 10 years at East Boston Savings Bank.

Joe is an experienced banking leader having held roles in fraud prevention, information and cyber security. Joe’s specialties include data security, business continuity and disaster recovery, emerging technologies such as digital currency and blockchain, along with privacy and compliance requirements in the digital world.

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RADIUS BANK CASE STUDY Radius Bank is a forward-thinking community bank offering personal and business products and services.

In an effort to become a digital-first, 21st century bank, Radius decided to create the best possible digital experience for its customers by using the best-in-class and most innovative fintech products on the market.

Our partnership with Alloy is transformative and means that we can now scale our digital retail bank ad-infinitum.

- Mike Butler | CEO

OVERVIEW

Radius partnered with Alloy (in partnership with another fintech, Mantl) to transform the bank’s online consumer application process. By integrating APIs and data-driven workflow management tools into Radius’s digital banking platform, a superior customer experience was delivered while generating enormous cost savings for the bank.

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CHALLENGE

With an increasing number of online banking applications, Radius’s onboarding process couldn’t meet customer demands.

Applicants abandoned their applications or were denied in manual review resulting in significant back-office costs and huge delays in account opening and funding.

Online banking is fraught with fraudulent account openings; a more sophisticated approach was required to combat fraud while letting in good customers.

SOLUTION

Alloy overhauled the entire KYC/AML process in Radius’s digital banking platform. By combining multiple data sources, fraud scores and authentication tests into a single rules engine, customer onboarding decisions were optimized, transparent and made in seconds.

Most powerful of all, Alloy’s solution is customizable. This flexibility enabled Radius to create a risk decision scorecard that can be tested and modified in real time.

RESULT

The strategic partnership has equipped Radius with a best-in-class digital application platform and has transformed it into a recognized digital banking leader.

Radius is now efficiently and automatically validating users’ identities and onboarding customers. Where users did have to go through manual review, the wait time was significantly lowered by having one place to review all application data and documents. Furthermore, the transparency of the Alloy platform gives Radius full digital paper trails when audits take place.

Together with Alloy, Radius is empowered to capture more value from their online channels, delivering a far superior digital experience to their clients, all while lowering fraud.

50

% fraudulent

95

%

30

account openings

manual review applications

% application to account conversion

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CO MPAN Y FACT S

• Recently, Radius Bank was named Best Online Bank by Bankrate.com • With the help of partners like Alloy, Radius Bank has been able to half its fraudulent account openings

substantial and competitive with the standards of the best tech companies and that employees have flexibility and perks, such as the ability to work from home. “We want to incorporate a fun, hard working experience, while at the same time acknowledging the need for a cross functional, open-minded approach from all of our employees.”

Security compliance comes down all the way from the executive team and board of directors. To this regard, Mancini emphasises the importance of leadership setting the example that others should follow.

Security is a high priority to modern consumers, but so is a frictionless experience. Ultimately, it comes down w w w.ra di usba n k. com

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“ Speed to market is critical, but we also need to understand there is risk in the digital space. It’s about finding the right balance” — Joe Mancini, Senior Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, Radius Bank

to providing customers with the best experience possible in an allencompassing single platform. Part of engaging with new technologies is acknowledging contemporary cybersecurity needs. “Today’s cybersecurity landscape presents a complex array of risks with a growing list of technologydriven tools to help combat those threats,” Mancini says. The biggest risk continues to be the human element.

Employees are still the main target of malicious actors. “Phishing attempts aren’t going away anytime soon.”

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Mancini adds, “It’s about educating

emerging technology sphere. It turns

employees and customers about these

towards international waters for inspi-

potential risks.”

ration, absorbing concepts from the

Partnering with fintechs puts Radius

advancing global technology. “We will

Bank at the cutting edge of the industry,

continue to strategically incorporate

meaning it becomes the company that

high-tech driven initiatives,” Mancini

sets the precedent. Mancini states,

concludes. “We are an industry disrup-

“rather than looking at it as a challenge,

tor and are excited for what the future

we welcome the opportunity.” This is

holds for Radius and our customers.”

particularly important moving into the future, as the banking industry evolves and becomes increasingly digital. Over the next five years, Radius Bank intends to continue being a leader within the w w w.ra di usba n k. com

Radius Bank One Harbor Street Boston, MA 02210 USA T 800.242.0272 www.radiusbank.com