Leading the Fight Against Fraud: MeridianLink Partner Solutions 

Welcome and Housekeeping 

Lynda Borsodi 

00:14 – 00:46 

Hello and thank you for joining us today. We’re going to be having an exciting webinar called Leading the Fight Against Fraud and Megan Pulliam, our Senior Vice President of Marketplace, is going to be here talking with a couple of people. 

But before we start the webinar, just some housekeeping. If you do have any questions, you’ll notice on the right hand side of your screen a Q and A dialog box. 

Please submit your questions there and at the end of the webinar we’ll get to as many of them as we can. And with that out of the way, Megan, I’m just going to turn it over to you. 

Megan Pulliam 

00:46 – 04:12 

Alright. Thank you, Linda. 

Thank you all for, spending some time with us today. I’m super excited to be here with a couple of Meridian’s long term clients, to talk about their approach to mitigating fraud, managing risk at their institutions, and the way that they have relied on MeridianLink and our partner ecosystem to help them in, their efforts. 

So joining me today on stage, we’ve got Janelle Harton, who’s, VP, of lending at, Bangor Savings Bank. Thank you, Janelle, for being here. 

Janelle handles wears many hats as many of you might identify with. Janelle’s responsible for retail products and programs. 

She’s also takes an active role in systems administration, at the at the bank. And then also joining us today is Logan, Logan Amstutz from Three Rivers. 

Logan is the share manager over at Three Rivers Federal Credit Union. He oversees deposits, and share accounts, share manager, as well as systems, product and processes, administration for a number of the systems at, Three Rivers. 

And I think, you know, I really appreciate the two of you being here with me today to really share your first hand perspective. We’ve done this, a couple of times with some of our our leading partners who bring fraud solutions to market. 

But we thought this time it would be really impactful to hear from you, the way that you think about it, the way you’ve deployed some of the tools within your institutions, and the things that you’ve done to keep your members and your consumers safe as they interact with your bank. And I think some of you listening in today will find it as interesting as I did that we continually talk about leading the fight against fraud in the in the digital world as we’ve been pushed, more and more to interact with people online, but it’s still an active, an active threat also within the institution, in the branch, in person. 

So, without further ado, we’ll jump in today. The panel discussion will go through a few different questions and kind of lead down a path here. 

As Linda mentioned, in your Goldcast screen, you will see an area over on the right-hand side for chat and q and a. If you wouldn’t mind putting your questions into the q and a panel, which you can reach by clicking on the q and a button, that will be something that we get to at the end, and make sure that we address all of your questions. 

If we happen to run out of time, we’ll make sure that we do some one on one follow-up with folks. So, oh, I got a few extras. 

Y’all can see some close ups here of our friends. So just starting off at a really high level, I know you each have different purview, meaning at the at the credit union, Logan, a lot of what you think of in the trends that you’re seeing happen to be on the deposits or the share side of the house. 

Whereas, Janelle, you see a lot more on on the lending side. Would love it if you could each share just some of the fraud trends that you think other institutions should be most mindful of. 

What are the things that you’re seeing in this rapidly evolving threat landscape? Logan, would you mind starting us off? 

Fraud Trends in Deposits and Lending  

Logan Amstutz 

04:12 – 05:36 

Yeah. Of course. 

So as a credit union, the share side of the house is always the first, line of defense when it comes to mitigating our our fraud. You have to have an account before you can get a loan at a credit union. 

So, really, we see the majority of our fraud on the share account side, the side that I’m responsible for. The biggest fraud threat we’re seeing today is synthetic fraud. 

Individuals stitching together multiple pieces of information from real good individuals that just don’t actually, you know, come from the same person. So essentially creating a Frankenstein of of fake data, that’s not really fake and is found in in certain databases and certain data sources. 

So that that’s probably our biggest fraud record we’re seeing today. We’re also seeing a rise in first per first party fraud where people are getting paid by local individuals, to come in, get a debit card, they get hand that debit card over to the person that’s paying them, and they’re performing fraud at ATMs, especially ones that accept cash or they’re using those, statutory limits for, you know, the check, amounts that you can receive back as cash from a ATM and we draw that way. 

So I’d say those are probably the two biggest, fraud trends we’re seeing in today’s environment. 

Megan Pulliam 

05:36 – 06:08 

Yeah. Yeah. 

It’s so interesting too as synthetic has evolved. Right? You can verify the Social Security number. 

You can verify individual pieces. But when they stitch them together, it looks real, but it is not actually the human that they represent themselves to be. 

And the first party fraud, I think that’s something that, again, it really brings it to life, Logan, because I think a lot of that was like, oh, that doesn’t happen anymore. It absolutely does still happen, in person. 

What about you, Janelle? 

Janel Hartin 

06:08 – 07:15 

I would say that synthetic fraud is, really that number one, that we’re seeing. Seems easier for fraudsters to try to do it online and submit an application through an online channel than walk into a branch, and have that face to face interaction, which says a lot about the training for those face to face, lenders and branch personnel that they’re doing a really good job of deterring that with that synthetic, giving us just enough good information to trick the system. 

Thankfully, again, I I’ll go back to training as a definite answer or a rebuttal for fraud, whether it’s the underwriters, the processors. It’s that individual that’s looking at, the file and making sense of the information for sure. 

They are, almost as good. Some of them we’re we’ve been around a long time at Bangor Savings. 

So some of our staff have been here a long time doing the same work, which we love because they’re really good at it. So Yeah. 

And take away women in that interaction. 

Investing in Fraud Solutions 

Megan Pulliam 

07:15 – 08:11 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. 

And as you think about synthetic fraud, if you think about the way that the landscape is evolving, you know, one of the items that continually comes up is the investment, right, and fraud fighting solutions. It’s no longer okay just to do a KYC check or an OFAC check and bump it against, you know, the known offenders list. 

Now banks, fintechs, credit unions are increasing the investments, in identity risk solutions. Just curious how, Janelle, you went about choosing your third party fraud solutions again as there are more options in market. 

And, frankly, you know, I equated it for one customer. Like, it used to be belt, then belt and suspenders, and now some of our our customers are employing the full body cast. 

How did you think about going about your, third party fraud solution, analysis? 

Vendor Evaluation Strategies  

Janel Hartin 

08:11 – 09:28 

So I think it was really about working with our partners at the bank, our risk management team. What are you seeing? Looking for trends. 

And then, doing lots of demos, asking lots of questions, and trying it out, making sure that what we’re selecting is meeting the need, that the bank is is seeing, where we’re falling down. And then it doesn’t stop there. 

It’s also continuing to test and validate. When we see a fraudster file slide through, using that information to go back and retest, make changes to your settings. 

Be a little stricter if you need to, on your, portfolio of what’s allowed, what’s not. I always go back to a good customer, TrueFile. 

They’re not as concerned about being paused while we do a validation of identity. Anybody who’s had identity theft, as a problem, even a bad credit card. 

Oh, not compromised. You know? It’s such a mess, and it’s, such a heartache for a lot of people. 

So, having a good system in place that stops the file internally is a good thing. 

Megan Pulliam 

09:28 – 09:46 

Yeah. Yeah. 

And, Logan, what about you at, Three Rivers? I know you guys went through an evaluation with us and, moved over to our modern experience, and with that came more options than you had before. How did you go through sorting through your your options? 

Logan Amstutz 

09:46 – 11:14 

Yeah. So we actually sent an RFP. 

So we identified, the biggest players in the market, through collaboration with Freddie Link, asked you guys, who do you guys currently partner with? Who are you looking at partnering with in the future, to give us a good idea, of where we’re going to get the best lift? That’s one of the things I’m going to say is, you know, you need really need to identify what are the most important aspects of having a fraud vendor. One of the ones that we identified as one of our most important aspects was the need to integrate fully and seamlessly with our deposit and loan origination system. 

This is where the majority of our members come to us from, and so having an integrator here seamlessly was the most important thing for us. And so working with, Josh Seppi, our our account executive to identify who, we could partner with and who is coming up that we could then look at. 

We didn’t send an RFP out to them with these are these are the things that we need. And we asked them to just respond back with, can you meet these needs? And there was a couple institutions that or a couple, vendors that, you know, they while they have strong solutions, they didn’t meet the needs that we have for today and the needs we’re going to have going into the future. 

So we’re able to pretty easily rule those vendors out and look at the ones that we’re going to provide us the solutions not just to meet the fraud of today, but to meet the fraud of tomorrow. 

Megan Pulliam 

11:14 – 11:57 

Yeah. That’s an excellent point. 

I think that process doesn’t always happen so smoothly. I’m glad you got some collaboration from your MeridianLink account executive in sorting through things. 

And an RFP is daunting as it may sound, doesn’t have to be a lengthy process, but it does ensure that we have documented steps that you go through. I like that idea. 

And with so many types of frauds and solutions, like, you mentioned, Logan, like, really evaluating very specific elements. How did you make sense of those options you mentioned for today and into the future? Maybe a couple examples of maybe specific things that you were screening for. 

Logan Amstutz 

11:57 – 13:20 

Yeah. So the biggest thing you’re looking for is we wouldn’t have we wouldn’t have we wouldn’t have something that was going to help us identify those synthetic fraud applicants. 

So we needed to find a solution that wasn’t looking at one disparate data source. They were looking at multiple data sources, preferably things that weren’t on credit file data, things that existed elsewhere outside of credit file. 

Because, unfortunately, with the Equifax breach, a lot of that credit file data, it’s out there now. Fraudsters have it. 

What we are seeing before with our legacy solution before we moved over to be so sure where we are today, We actually it was more likely that you were a fraudster if you passed all your things than if you failed one of those security questions because the fraudsters had it right in front of them. And so if you’re relying on those, you know, out of wallet questions coming from a credit file, it it’s probably not the best solution today. 

We knew that. We knew what we really wanted is we really needed to find something that’s pulling in device information, that’s pulling in how are they applying to us? What device are they using? Where is it located? Are they geolocated in the same IP location where it makes sense? You know, you’ll have things like VPNs that can throw a flag, but then you’re providing a small friction or for somebody that’s doing something to protect themselves versus, you know, allowing so much to come in. 

Megan Pulliam 

13:20 – 13:20 

Yeah. 

Logan Amstutz 

13:20 – 13:35 

Things like being able to identify how long has the phone number been in use, how long has the email address been in use. Those were the priorities for us. 

And being able to correlate that information back to the identity at a really high degree of security. 

Stakeholder Considerations in Vendor Selection 

Megan Pulliam 

13:35 – 13:58 

Yeah. Oh, that’s fantastic. 

And you know what I was hearing from you, Janelle, is you worked with your risk team, with so many options in market and then stakeholders within your institution. What were some of the things that, you know, your peers or your counterparts were pushing you to evaluate and look at when you were evaluating your options? 

Janel Hartin 

13:58 – 14:50 

You know, I actually think Logan hit on a lot of it is is having that other piece, the phone, validation, being able to, set your settings so that the longer it takes them to figure out the answers, that kicks it back to, you know, a referred for review, or that phone number is not, associated with that individual. I mean, being able to go out to those sources that are not going to be seen, solely on the credit reporting, data. 

So truly, it was about having those tentacles in other pieces of the information. And then, you know, for us, it’s about seeing those trends. 

We had a rash of, fraudsters all coming in and that’s through the same single sign on channel. 

Megan Pulliam 

14:50 – 14:51 

Mhmm. 

Janel Hartin 

14:51 – 15:08 

And using Outlook, emails. And we’re like, that’s unusual for an individual to identify with an Outlook email, not for their employer’s email. 

So, starting to see some of those kind of trends and say, how can we address those? 

Megan Pulliam 

15:08 – 15:09 

And how can we. 

Logan Amstutz 

15:09 – 15:09 

have a. 

Janel Hartin 

15:09 – 15:16 

solution that addresses those or at least alerts us to stop, and take a second look at those files. 

Megan Pulliam 

15:16 – 16:27 

Oh, that’s a really good point. We did have one customer that was starting to see, again, that single sign on channel that started to become, a telltale sign of fraudsters because they were coming from specific locations within a specific or a set period of time. 

And that was one flag that one of our customers used as they evaluated the data. We’re like, wait a minute. 

Some of this doesn’t make sense. Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. 

And then outside of, maybe the online channel, are there things that you know, we talk a lot about integrated solutions into MeridianLink again in the digital channel. Are there other things that you all are using? And I know when we were prepping for this, I thought it was really cure or, you know, an interesting tidbit about things you’re doing in branch, to assist your associates in in helping. 

So other technologies that you’re using in your fraud detection system outside of the online interaction point? Sorry. Maybe start with you too. 

Fraud Protection and Training  

Janel Hartin 

16:27 – 17:37 

So, you know, we do certainly, utilizing when we’re, you know, our tech systems and, you know, other technologies. We are, we’re with Meridian for our consumer, but our business partners, our credit card partners using other software’s and using, other identity detection tools, there as well. 

So we’ve, well, because we’re kind of spread out a little bit, we have the opportunity to see how other these some of these other programs work, which is great. I will, say that training, keeping, fraud top of mind for those, front end use, lenders, branch associates to be able to identify, talk, understand when they’re looking at an ID, when’s the information makes sense, when to ask those follow-up questions. 

Underwriting, is huge. I mean their training is, fabulous. 

It is ongoing so that they are seeing the trends. They’re exposed to what’s happening, out there in the marketplace. 

So not just systems, that are detecting, but people. 

Megan Pulliam 

17:37 – 17:40 

Yeah. How about you, Logan? 

Logan Amstutz 

17:40 – 19:33 

Yeah. I think the biggest thing that we’re seeing is getting the information out to the people that are engaging with the members. 

So whether that’s making it easy to access, things that aren’t just out of the wallet information, you know, for your call center. Somebody calls in and, you know, wants to validate themselves. 

You’re not asking them what their date of birth is. You’re not asking them, you know, the last six of their social. 

You’re asking things like, where was the last place you used your debit card? You’re using your core data. Things that a fraudster isn’t going to know to be able to register and recognize that that member is who they say they are. 

Using technology such as, you know, AI software that’s going to recognize the voice and say, yes. This voice and this timber matches the person who’s calling in. 

We have a registration of this is the voice associated with this number. They call in and say what they need. 

We recognize that this is who they say they are. It’s not their son. 

It’s not their grandson calling in from their phone device who has access to their statement or their online account access. It truly is the member calling in for this. 

So I think that’s really important. And then one of the other things that we do is we have in our core system, we have every one of our members. 

We have their IDs. And if we don’t have an ID for that member, it’s part of the flag for doing the transaction for them is, hey. 

Get the ID. So we scan it. 

We have their up, you know, their up to date photo ID. We can see what they look like. 

If somebody comes in, that’s not the member. We know that. 

Even if they have the member number, even if they have the account number, even if they have other information that would make it easy to do those types of transactions, we have other pieces of data that are tied directly to that member to help prevent those types of fraud transactions, especially from an in person, you know, perspective. 

Megan Pulliam 

19:33 – 20:07 

Yeah. Oh, that’s really it’s really interesting too. 

All the let’s call it the triangulation of data and how much I think it’s important that you both recognize that it’s not just having the technologies, but it’s the training, and it’s putting tools in the hands of the people that are interacting and making those decisions at a point in time of of really guiding your associates, right, the people that are interacting with your with your members and your customers, through the process of handling those transactions. 

Logan Amstutz 

20:07 – 20:08 

Mhmm. 

Regulatory Changes and Risk Management  

Megan Pulliam 

20:08 – 21:19 

Shifting a little bit past, like, how all of it works and how you thought about all of it. I think, you know, there’s a lot of, shall we call it change and talk about an ever evolving landscape. 

I think maybe the things that were in process towards the end of last year are now radically shifting. You know, regulatory changes are things that are always at the forefront. 

And I think over the last year, one thing that I noticed was, you know, back in the day, if a consumer had a fraudulent credit card charge, they could call their institution and say, hey. Somebody used my credit card. 

Can you reverse this charge? The amounts in question and the sophistication of the of the rings that take advantage of the of the system have just grown in complexity. And with that, the dollar amounts have grown dramatically. 

So one regulation that I have been tracking and I’m still tracking to see what happens here is, you know, say, a fraudster moves funds using ill gotten credentials either through. 

Logan Amstutz 

21:19 – 21:19 

synthetic fraud or. 

Megan Pulliam 

21:19 – 22:37 

through fraud or through compromising, someone with, with phishing attempts, they log in, they move money, right? They transfer funds from one institution to another. Given that the large banks are the ones that tend to be the ones compromised and candidly smaller institutions are at more risk of actually being the destination, the acquirer of those funds. 

There was a lot of talk about the regulations about who’d be on the hook for that. I think, again, it it raises the bar on the fraud solutions, right, of making sure that the person that wants to put money in your institution is the person that who they say they are. 

I know I just rambled a bit here, but, you know, in the seats where you are, I imagine that your risk teams, your compliance teams are constantly on the, on the watch for planned regulatory changes. How has that impacted your institution over the last year, and how do you think it will maybe in the coming year, as the new administration sort of takes hold and maybe relaxes some of those, those regulations with consumer protections. 

Janelle. 

Janel Hartin 

22:37 – 24:18 

So certainly, keeping abreast of what’s happening. We have, a fabulous risk team here who is, on top of and communicating, which I think is the big key is communicating, what’s coming, being prepared for it, looking to the vendor to say, you know, how is the software going to address, our our concerns or ident at least, put a highlight on them, so that we can, catch those. 

But, you know, the AI space, I think, is huge. I think the abilities of some of these programs to be able to start identifying when, they are spotting these phishing attempts or, compromised information, that’s beyond just the credit. 

As we said earlier. Maybe it’s the phone or the email or, the same, you know, dummy employers. 

My goodness. These fraudsters are so good. 

They make up dummy pay stubs. So it’s craziness. 

We need to, you know, hire more people who think like they might think or maybe just interview them, so that we can, be thinking in those same, ways to be able to identify, the, you know, the fraudsters, the, scams that go around. But, regulatory wise, you know, I think we’re open to work what happens, and how it changes, and we do the best we can with, making sure that our systems are safe and safe and secure for the for our good customers. 

Megan Pulliam 

24:18 – 24:38 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah. Indeed. 

What regardless of what regulatory, it changes or what regulations are passed down, like, being being cognizant of your own policies and training, I think, is always the sound approach. Logan? 

Logan Amstutz 

24:38 – 26:37 

Yeah. I mean, obviously, the biggest elephant in the room when you’re talking about I think right now, when you’re talking about regulatory changes, protecting consumer from payment scams act that places, you know, though those numbers that that willingly give their information over to a fraudster gives them protection. 

I don’t think that’s going to go anywhere in the current administration, but it it’s going to be out there and it’s going to stay there. So trying to find ways to help mitigate that, I think, is the biggest way to reduce the liability there. 

And the ways that you can help do that is by encouraging people with information. Getting that information, not just to your frontline staff and not just to your team, but educating your members. 

Ensuring that they know what are the types of fraud that are out there. What are the biggest fraud trends in your area? What are the fraud trends that your members are seeing? And ways for you to do that is to identify what types of things you’re seeing, not only internally, but working, and I I’m lucky to be a credit union because credit unions historically, tend to work together, with a lot of this kind of thing, and they’re willing to kind of share this information. 

You know, working locally, we have a local fraud network of other credit unions that shares information of the fraud that they’re seeing to help all of us in in kind of the local community. And those types of resources, those local or regional fraud networks to help you identify those trends before your members start seeing them. 

But while you’re seeing them in the area, I think it’s really important to being able to then share that information out to your members. Because truly, our members and our team members are our first line of defense. 

And regardless of what the regulate regulation changes, get put in place, having the ability to identify these types of behaviors and reporting them to the institution is is really the biggest way for us to mitigate our potential losses. 

Megan Pulliam 

26:37 – 28:19 

Yeah. Oh, that’s brilliant. 

I love the idea of getting with those in your community that are facing the same questions, coming up with strategies based on the local fraud rings, based on what you’re seeing in your communities, and educating members and educating customers on what they should they should be on the lookout for. I think a lot of the regulation candidly addresses it after it happens and is there to make sure that, you know, the institutions do right by the consumer, best prevention is to stop it before it starts. 

And I was talking to our friends at TransUnion about some of this and that the, you know, community institutions are the ones that have, a population that may be more susceptible or may be targeted more by fraudsters. So really getting education out there into the community about what to be on the lookout for is so very, very important. 

And I think our next one is going to be about the balancing friction. I think Janelle, one of the things that you mentioned earlier is, you know, our actual customers, anybody that’s been through, you know, the having their account compromised or been through something where they’ve been on the receiving end of fraudulent transactions are actually more patient when they get to this point. 

But, you know, as you think about the education of your, customers, your members, how are you balancing the experience of having to flag somebody for a manual review or flag somebody because their credentials may have been may have been compromised? 

Balancing Friction With Customer Experience  

Janel Hartin 

28:19 – 29:43 

You know, I think it’s, a lot to do with the communication, how you express why there, may be a delay in getting their file through, being timely, certainly, when you do have that file that’s, kicked out for a manual review. But I think it’s all about the communication. 

To Logan’s point, it’s the training for the customer as well as it is through the staff employee to, know how to, one, work through the process, but understand why, why could this why is my file delayed, and ask the questions of whatever it was that flagged it. Sometimes, you know, we have people who may not be as technically savvy applying for a file alone and their files gotten flagged just because it took longer, to come through or for them to answer the questions. 

Should be a simple solution to move it on through, but, as long as we’re communicating that. Meridian’s got some great automated, messaging, system. 

I think utilizing those, utilizing those to not just send the message to, the customer to let them know, but to the lender so that they can contact them as soon as possible. So utilizing those tools that you have, to keep the communication open. 

Megan Pulliam 

29:43 – 30:20 

Yeah. I love that idea. 

You know, most people are understanding if they know what’s going on. It’s the lack of the communication that can sometimes be most challenging. 

It leads to abandonment. It leads to, you know, people trailing off and maybe searching for another location to satisfy their need. 

Yeah. The SMS texting capabilities and the automated messaging, can certainly help set those expectations. 

Logan, what are you all doing at Three Rivers to make sure that, you’re balancing the need to run these checks that may slow things down a little. 

Logan Amstutz 

30:20 – 32:50 

bit? Yeah. So the biggest thing that we do is we always try to, apply, waterfall approach to any type of any type of fraud mitigation that we have. 

So instead of just applying a one size fits all across the board, we try to use the data that we have, the information that we have to identify how risky is the transaction that’s going on and the person that’s doing it. Based on that, they could be, you know, escalated to a certain level of of fraud mitigation, that then, you know, presents them with with one set of of, you know, mitigation methods. 

For example, like with Socure, we’re going to run through that. We’re going to see, does their identity match? And if we see a certain level of risk there, we’re going to set them up, and they’re going to have to take a selfie and a picture of their ID. 

And if they’re able to pass through that, then they go to, you know, our next step if that’s important or if that’s necessary. If they get flagged as well, we we’ve identified that they probably aren’t who they say they are now. 

We stop the process. We don’t we don’t water flow them to anything else. 

We say, hey. This this person is risky enough. 

We don’t think they are who they say they are here. And just like that, you know, having those types of waterfall approaches to other systems, any system you can build that into is going to reduce that friction. 

You want the friction where you need it, and you want to lose the friction where you don’t. So trying to make it so it’s as frictionless as possible while still maintaining an acceptable level of risk, which means you have to understand what is your acceptable level of risk. 

Because your goal is no fraud losses, you’re going to have a very friction y experience. If your goal is no friction, you’re going to have a lot of fraud bosses. 

So you need to understand what that balance is for your institution. Every institution is going to be different, and it’s going to be dependent upon, you know, your makeup, everything, you know, that kind of goes into that, that’s going to play into what that level needs to be tuned to for your institution and for the risk level that that type of transaction is going to cause. 

Obviously, you know, an unsecured, you know, credit card or an unsecured personal loan has more risk to it, than maybe a certificate account. So your levels of mitigation need to be different for those. 

Fraud Innovation and AI  

Megan Pulliam 

32:50 – 33:15 

Yeah. Indeed. 

Indeed. Indeed. 

Indeed. Our last question before we get into the q and a is, around fraud innovation. 

Things that you have seen or heard about or keeping your pulse on that you think will have the biggest impact, in in financial institutions. And, Logan, I’ll start with you. 

Logan Amstutz 

33:15 – 34:24 

So I think the biggest thing that’s going to have the most impact, and I have no idea what it’s going to look like, is obviously going to be AI machine learning. So we’re already starting to see this. 

We’re starting to see this with the fraud vendors that are coming out. So they’re using AI models to train their algorithm for fraud solutions, including their picture ID verification program, which can analyze, the photo of the person who takes their selfie against the government issued ID. 

They have every government issued ID, theoretically in the world programmed into that model. And, you know, it would be impossible for any frontline staff to have that detailed of knowledge. 

So I definitely see definitely for that. But we’re also going to see more of that on the other end as well. 

We’re going to start seeing fraudsters utilizing these same tools. So it’s really a race between the vendors and the fraudsters of who does the innovations better, who does the innovations work. 

So, I mean, we’re I definitely think that’s where we’re going to see the biggest impact. No idea what that’s going to look like, but, it’s going to be a wild ride. 

Megan Pulliam 

34:24 – 34:28 

Yeah. Absolutely. 

Well said. What about you, Janelle? 

Janel Hartin 

34:28 – 35:08 

I mean, I would have to agree. I mean, AI, and being able to catch things in real time. 

I think that’s the as you said, earlier, preventative, to be able to stop it before it comes through. And now a lot of times what we’re doing with our current tools is, you know, it’s after the fact. 

Now maybe we’re using that information to help set our settings to prevent future ones, but, the abilities of some of these machine learned, algorithms to be able to say and see and stop a file, I think that’s phenomenal and very exciting. 

Megan Pulliam 

35:08 – 35:58 

Yeah. Absolutely. 

Yeah. And we’re starting to see some of our existing partners make strides in these areas already. 

Of course, we’re all keeping our pulse on AI and how that’s going to affect our daily lives. And, yeah, I think that I think that’s the question on many, many fronts is can the good guys use it faster than the bad guys? How do we outsmart the ones that want to use it for no good? So, yeah, we will continue here at MeridianLink to keep our finger on that pulse as well. 

And before or I should say, as we move into the q and a portion, are there any, final thoughts or things that we didn’t quite cover that you would all like to share? No pressure. I’m going to switch to the q and a slide here. 

Switch to the Logan, anything that you want to add that we didn’t cover? 

Q&A 

Logan Amstutz 

35:58 – 37:19 

I think we slightly touched on it, but I think one of the most important things for you to do is identify what data do you have on your members. So really being able to look at the data you have on your members. 

You know, for example, like, if you’re starting to see transactions out of state or you’re starting to see transactions that don’t fit with how your members or your customers typically do business with you, that should be a flag, and it should be a reach out opportunity. We should be being more proactive before the member says, oh, I got frauded, and there were three transactions, and now we have to figure this out. 

If you can use your day your data to identify those places where the member’s behavior doesn’t match up what you know of your existing customer or member And being able to prevent that as early as possible, I think that’s where a lot of the after the account opening fraud is going to get caught. And, you know, it’s the exact same thing from the account opening side. 

Using the data that exists out there on the identity through third party integrations or even what you already have internally of who you know this person is to be able to match up and verify is the person who they say they are. Or did somebody break into their SSO and, you know, they’re trying to apply, you know, using a device that’s never been associated with your existing customer. 

Megan Pulliam 

37:19 – 37:54 

That’s right. That’s right. 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Our, and I say here at Meridian link, our job is to help you all do three things. Is this person who’s who they say they are? Have they provided all the documents that we need in order to render decision and have we assessed the credit worthiness right, of of this individual? So person decision, document decision, credit decision, and make those things as seamless as possible and provide the data back to you in order to do those things that you described. 

Janelle, anything that you’d like to add before we go into the q and a? 

Janel Hartin 

37:54 – 38:37 

Yeah. I would just, the value of relooking at what you have. 

We’ve set up a program. So we went to modern directly. 

We never were in classic. We went from Chris action programs right into modern, Meridian. 

And, with it, we had so many more tools than what we had, previously. But now we’re a couple years in, and we’re like, we need to holistically look at what we have. 

Is it stopping where we need this to stop? Is it allowing it to go through where we want it to go through? And are there other systems, available to us that, you know, maybe meet those needs? 

Lynda Borsodi 

38:37 – 38:37 

And. 

Janel Hartin 

38:37 – 38:47 

we may not change. We are looking at a couple over the next couple weeks. 

We may stay with what we have, but we want to make sure that it is what we need it to be. 

Megan Pulliam 

38:47 – 38:58 

Yeah. Amen. 

Amen. I, I think Linda’s going to rejoin us and take us through some of the questions. 

There we go. 

Lynda Borsodi 

38:58 – 39:22 

Hello. What a great webinar. 

So informative. It was so great to hear all of the, information coming from both of you. 

There have been a couple of questions and they’re kind of broad in scope. I know, Logan, you had mentioned that you’ve used, Secure. 

Have you had it long, and what was your path to get to it? 

Logan Amstutz 

39:22 – 40:34 

Yeah. So we went live with SoCure, December of twenty three. 

So we’ve had them for a little over a year. And our path to get to them, was first, going live with modern experience and then being able to go live with SoCure. 

It really the implementation for SoCure was quite easy. Testing with them was a very easy process. 

We actually, were able to go live three weeks before our expected deadline for the project implementation, which was great because we’re able to get that done prior to kind of the heavier fraud season that starts around Christmas. So we’re able to get that done at the December, have it in place. 

And, one of my one of my favorite stories with SoCure and our implementation with it is that we were able to catch our first fraudster, using data that we wouldn’t have been able to catch through our legacy system. It was flagged due to, the email address associated with the identity and the phone number being less than thirty days old. 

Two pieces of information we wouldn’t have had without Socure. We caught them within the first three hours of going live. 

So. 

Lynda Borsodi 

40:34 – 40:38 

Yeah. That’s amazing. 

Janel Hartin 

40:38 – 40:39 

That’s amazing. 

Lynda Borsodi 

40:39 – 40:44 

Janelle, do you use multiple fraud vendors? 

Janel Hartin 

40:44 – 41:41 

So with Meridian, consumer, we use, Experian’s precise ID or cross core, only, within, Meridian. We do have other vendors for other software. 

So, TransUnion’s, IDA, we use, on our small business side. Credit card uses a Fiserv, program. 

So we do have other vendors, which gives us this unique ability to kind of take a look how are they working, what are the pros and the cons. As I mentioned, we’re looking at what else is available to us to make sure that we’re, fully looked at it. 

I’m looking at SoCure tomorrow. Logan’s made me very excited, before that demo. 

So, those other programs are all valid, all great programs. It’s about making sure it’s doing what you need, to address the type of frauds that you are seeing. 

Lynda Borsodi 

41:41 – 42:22 

Mhmm. And that that is a really great point in regards to as fraud as the fraud evolution continues, you want to make sure that you’ve got the right fraud tools to cover all that evolution. 

So that’s a really great point. And, Megan, I think this one the this next question might be for you. 

We’re testing the automation package from MeridianLink. This feature allows fixed personal loans and credit cards to be auto booked for apps that come through the SSO channel. 

Are there additional levels of security we should add before we turn this auto booking feature on? That’s an excellent good question. 

Megan Pulliam 

42:22 – 42:33 

So I don’t know, Logan or Janelle, if either of you are using the automation package, to do this and if you have any advice for our friend. 

Janel Hartin 

42:33 – 43:32 

So we’re not auto booking, but we do have, our cross core set for our single sign on as well, where you had a little rash of of fraudsters, open deposit accounts and then slide in through our single sign on to apply for personal loans. Logan’s point was, valid earlier. 

A lot of times it’s that a lot more fraud, protection upfront when they’re establishing the deposit account. And so we don’t always see as much of it on the loan side, but this particular little, group that we had hit us last year, thankfully, we caught them all. 

We believe we caught them all. But having that single sign on, also protected, allowed for that protection with the customer. 

As far as auto booking, we’re not auto booking, currently. I think it’s something that we definitely will do, down the road. 

So great sounds like a great feature to be able to utilize. 

Megan Pulliam 

43:32 – 43:34 

Yeah. Absolutely. 

Logan Amstutz 

43:34 – 44:28 

So we do have the automated action, package. We use auto booking on the deposit side. 

We are exploring it right now on the lending side. So the things that I would say to somebody looking to explore this is, what are the two, you know, security places that you have, for auto booking? The first is going to be as you’re logging in to your online banking provider. 

So how secure are you that the person who’s logging into your online banking is who they say they are? And ensuring that you’re comfortable with the level of security that you have there, because that’s really the first step. If you are, you know, 99 sure that they are who they say they are and % sure that they are who they say they are, then you shouldn’t have that much risk with your booked apps coming over from your SSO because you have full confidence that they are who they say they. 

Janel Hartin 

44:28 – 44:29 

are. Yeah. 

Logan Amstutz 

44:29 – 46:07 

Now if you have some concerns that they aren’t who they say they are, what types of, security measures can you add to your online banking provider before they even get to that step, before they even get to the SSO and they get to additional friction there? Because I there’s a lot of things you could do in online banking. That probably needs to be your first step beyond just opening a new account, automatically allowing that to book over. 

They can do transactions. They can set up all sorts of things. 

So having that secure is probably your first step. Your next step then is going to be identifying what’s your risk there. 

What can you do behind the scenes frictionless to identify a potential fraudster? You know, something like device information. Does the device that they use to apply with online banking or that they usually use to log in to online banking match the device that they’re using for this application? And if that’s data that you have, being able to match those up and ensure that that information matches, is really important. 

You know, not being able to do that or not being able to identify the phone number being used in the application, things like that to the individual. Typically, when you see a fraudster, they’re probably going to be changing the email address or the phone number because they want a way to contact that’s coming back to them that’s not going back to the member. 

They don’t want an email going to the member unless they have also compromised that that member’s email address. So just a couple places that I think to be aware of as you’re kind of going through that process. 

Megan Pulliam 

46:07 – 47:17 

Yeah. Really solid advice. 

Thank you. And I do know and a few of our customers have reached out to do what we’re calling a portfolio review. 

It’s not in the moment of truth, SSO. Right? Personal loan, credit card being auto booked to core, but the hygiene of reviewing your, your member roles, your customer roles, and checking to see if they’ve been compromised, at any point. 

Because again, there’s, there’s been an expectation of, hey, once they make it in, they should be okay. Right? We all know that that, accounts are being compromised, after they’ve been created. 

It’s not always at the moment of of, initial contact. So we do have the ability to offer what we’re calling portfolio scrubs of going through and checking, you know, your member list against, known fraudulent activity. 

So that could also be another tool that you if you’re starting to see more and more of it or you’re concerned that you’re going to see more and more of it, a tool that we have at our disposal as well. 

Lynda Borsodi 

47:17 – 47:40 

Thanks. Another question. 

A couple more have come in. Logan, this one’s for you. 

We’ve just added deposit accounts to modern Meridian to MeridianLink modern experience, and we’re looking into enhanced verification before offering auto creation. Logan, does your credit union use other fraud solutions in conjunction with SoCure? 

Logan Amstutz 

47:40 – 49:53 

Oh, yes. Yeah. 

So we have a whole, slew of, fraud solutions we use in conjunction with SoCure. So Socure is just the first step of our water our waterfall approach. 

And, again, the only time a member sees this friction is they get staffed up to secure ID verification. After that, the rest of the water flow happens without the member’s understanding. 

So we’re going to run them through Qualify to see have they been reported on a debit bureau. We’re going to run them through credit to see are there any fraud flags on their credit file. 

When they do the payment system, the majority of our payments are, coming in, via plaid. So we’re doing, name matching on the Plaid to ensure that the name in the application matches the name on the, the account that they’re funding that from. 

We no longer allow the traditional account and routing number because to be honest, I’ve never understood how that was secure. Every one of your checks that you give to somebody has that information on it. 

So if you’re looking for a way to fraud, just get somebody to write you a check and you’ve got your information. So that’s never been to me a very secure method of of payment for anything. 

So moving to Plaid has really helped to secure that and ensure that we truly are getting funding information from the right person. And then when it when we have the other booking happen, we’re going to compare the information that’s presented in the app start core data. 

And if there’s key pieces of core data that are being changed or updated. We do not auto book that anymore. 

It does that comparison, and that’s the first step of our booking process. It’ll kick it back out. 

It’ll go to review, and we’ll know why. And we’ll be able to reach out and then verify that person’s information. 

So, so, yes, we have we have quite a few stages. Luckily, only one of them, provides any real friction to our member. 

The rest of it is all in the back end, which is where I recommend you to go, try to make it as frictionless, as seamless as possible for your for your applicants while ensuring you’re getting that security. 

Lynda Borsodi 

49:53 – 49:54 

Fantastic. 

Janel Hartin 

49:54 – 49:58 

There’s another question. There’s another question. 

Lynda Borsodi 

49:58 – 49:59 

Sorry. There’s some feedback. 

Janel Hartin 

49:59 – 50:04 

There’s some feedback. 

Lynda Borsodi 

50:04 – 50:12 

Do either of you, or both of you use cross core? And if so, how does it perform in respect to others? 

Megan Pulliam 

50:12 – 50:15 

Yeah. This one’s for you, Janelle. 

Janel Hartin 

50:15 – 51:26 

So, yes, we do, use cross core. We find, well, when we first set it up, we found that it, our settings might have been a little too stringent. 

And so that was part of the review. They provide a lot of data, really on a monthly basis. 

Those reports allow you to look through and see, where or how many files are stumbling, and how many are coming through cleared versus, you know, what’s been kicked out for a manual review so that you can make those adjustments as appropriate to your institution. Compared to it’s the only one we’ve used in Meridian so I don’t have a comparative in Meridian. 

We did have TransUnion’s one of their products, in action. And comparatively, I like what I have now, but on an unfair comparison because it’s two different systems. 

So, all I can say is that we’d like what it is doing, but we also want to be aware of what’s available to us. 

Lynda Borsodi 

51:26 – 51:41 

Fantastic. And, we did get a question in regards to the presentation. 

It has been recorded, and we will be sending it out to everyone who, both attended and could not attend. And, Megan, it looks like that might be all of the questions that we have. 

Megan Pulliam 

51:41 – 52:22 

Well, excellent. Thank you all again so much for spending part of your day with us. 

Thank you, Janelle, and thank you, Logan, for sharing your insights and your expertise with us. I truly appreciate it. 

It it always in my mind, it always is better to hear from the folks that do this on a day in and day out basis. So I really, really appreciate you sharing your insights with us. 

For those that have questions, or follow-up after this, please reach out to your account executives. I can get in touch, with you that way, or we can, address any follow-up questions that you might have specifically for your institution through your account executives. 

Thanks again, and, we give you eight minutes back. 

Lynda Borsodi 

52:22 – 52:24 

Thanks, everybody. 

Janel Hartin 

52:24 – 52:25 

Thank you.