Authentication and protection for e-finance consumers: the dichotomy of cost versus ease of use

Multifactor authentication is a tool to combat identity theft and is mandated by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. However, there are only a few US financial institutions that have implemented two-factor authentication. A goal for financial institutions is to provide both a secure and easy-to-use system for customers. This article describes web authentication technologies that are currently available to financial institutions and provides an interpretation of survey results to identify the perceptions/expectations of online customers. In our online banking customer survey, we found that online banking customers are willing to sacrifice some ease-of-use for more secure online banking transactions.