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
T
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
alloy.co w w w.c o mpa ny we bsite. com
RADIUS BANK
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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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RADIUS BANK
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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