4 ms·

Yes US banks are that bad and they lag their European counterparts. Fidelity is a large US brokerage with $2T under management. Only last year did they start t

by slv77 10y ago

Yes US banks are that bad and they lag their European counterparts. Fidelity is a large US brokerage with $2T under management. Only last year did they start to offer two factor authentication as an option (had to ask). I have accounts with one US regional bank and one US credit union which use basic device recognition and a security question when logging in from an unknown device. Other anecdotes.. My account at Fidelity is a joint account. After setting up online access and funding the account I discovered a year later that it was possible to get full access to the account by creating online access under my wife's name using the account number and a semi-trivial validation process. Accounts in the US typically have all features enabled by default or can be enabled in a trivial manner and this can't be disabled. Why should a typical account have the ability to wire funds internationally? It typically isn't possible to configure a second level of authentication for higher risk transactions. Limited ability to configure alerts based on unusual behavior. For example access from a new device or a transfer over a threshold. No ability to alert when those alerts are changed. Opaque account recovery processes. Even if additional security measures are implemented it may be possible to have them disabled trivially by phone. Almost zero customer education around risks and ways to reduce risk. stupid things like "Don't use your bank's password on other sites, it should be unique!"

adrianratnapala 10y ago
I never imagined that an account without the ability to wire funds internationally even existed. I have family oversees, I have friends oversees, I have bank accounts in three countries.
- slv77 10y ago
  Of course is should be an option but from a risk management perspective it makes sense to reduce the attack surface that a fraudster has to work with. In the US at least a typical customer will never initiate an international wire transfer. Even those with friends and family overseas will typically transfer funds through a money transfer service or via ATM networks to avoid the associated high fees. When a US customer walks into a bank asking to initiate a wire transfer its usually a red flag they are a victim of fraud.

by slv77 10y ago

adrianratnapala 10y ago

I never imagined that an account without the ability to wire funds internationally even existed. I have family oversees, I have friends oversees, I have bank accounts in three countries.

slv77 10y ago
Of course is should be an option but from a risk management perspective it makes sense to reduce the attack surface that a fraudster has to work with. In the US at least a typical customer will never initiate an international wire transfer. Even those with friends and family overseas will typically transfer funds through a money transfer service or via ATM networks to avoid the associated high fees. When a US customer walks into a bank asking to initiate a wire transfer its usually a red flag they are a victim of fraud.