I received a letter yesterday telling me that the ASB were updating a system, and as a result I would have to go to the bank with a photo ID and reconfirm my identity with them. I have no idea whether this was the real reason for them requiring me to repeat a process I had already been through, but despite the inconvience I dropped into a branch as I was walking past.
At the branch there were queues of people who had apparently also been told to go in on the same day, and the staff didn't appear to know why they were having to go through this process but they were clearly a little stretched and possibly stressed as I was told they'd been flat out all day. The reauthentication of record ASB already had on file took me about ten minutes to go through, and you could sense the frustration of the customers at the staff that this was all happening without any clear understanding of why it was necessary.
Now behind the scenes the IT Department might have lost some records or there may have been a valid reason to drag customers into a branch in the internet age, but whatever that reason was it wasn't clear to anyone on the banks front line. Whoever requested this update didn't think very hard about the process, why would you require existing customers to go to a branch and seemingly without spreading out the workload over time.
I have a superannuation account with the bank and nothing else, the system I had to get authenticated for was so I could check my balance online, nothing else. They ahd already confirmed I was who I said I was by checking my passport previously at a branch office. Now I know the PR department will be saying that we take security very seriously, but maybe the customer service department should be saying that we shouldn't be annoying customers to confirm information we already have. An maybe just maybe, the IT department should have said there is an easier way to do this to the ASB business owners.
