KQ Article

As incidents of identity theft have grown steadily nationwide in recent years, CorTrust Bank wanted its customers to continue feeling secure with their funds and transactions. Bank management decided it was necessary to provide an extra layer of protection from this looming threat.

“People here felt somewhat insulated from identity theft until recently, when a national retailer’s database was hacked, and the security of some of our debit cards was compromised,” said Craig Calhoun, CorTrust Bank marketing director. “We quickly resolved this issue, but it served as a wake-up call for our customers that geography offers little sanctuary from fraudulent activity. Identity theft can happen to anyone, anywhere.

“Plus, I was a victim of identity theft myself a few years ago, so I know firsthand how unpleasant and expensive it can be to resolve these issues on your own,” Calhoun added. “I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone.” The bank also recognized that adding this type of service could potentially provide a powerful means of differentiation, because few other area banks offered identity theft protection as an integrated feature of their offerings.

“South Dakota might be a sparsely populated state, but it’s a highly competitive environment for financial institutions,” Calhoun said. “In fact, Sioux Falls has the most banks per capita of any city in America. So, we were eager to act on this strategy that could potentially address both the security concerns of our customers and the competitive concerns of our bank.”

EXPLORING THE OPTIONS
In early 2007, CorTrust management began exploring possible ways to add identity theft protection to its checking accounts.

The team explored the traditional route first: policies through insurance companies. “These insurance policies were expensive and complex, which didn’t fit our needs,” Calhoun said. “Plus, the policies weren’t designed to be rolled into one of our existing services, which was what we were looking to do.”

Next, CorTrust researched possible solutions available through businesses that serve financial institutions, and Deluxe was at the top of that list. Much to the delight of CorTrust Bank, Deluxe ID TheftBlock® identity theft protection (see sidebar for details) seemed like a perfect fit.

“Deluxe ID TheftBlock is affordable and offers generous coverage, and it can be seamlessly integrated as an additional feature into the services we already provide,” Calhoun said.

“Plus, Deluxe handles the entire program, and we don’t have to worry about anything, which makes it even better.”

CorTrust Bank added Deluxe ID TheftBlock as a standard feature of its of CorChecking service in spring of 2007. The bank also began offering the service as a free benefit to its staff, providing employees with a nice additional perk — and useful firsthand experience for explaining the value of Deluxe ID TheftBlock to customers.

In contrast to the CorTrust Basic Checking service, which has no minimum balance or service fees, CorChecking requires a $250 minimum balance and carries a $5 monthly service fee. A majority of current CorTrust customers use Basic Checking,but the bank now heavily promotes its CorChecking service for its unmatched combination of three desirable features — ATM fee reimbursement, unlimited checks and now identity theft protection. Enrollment has gone through the roof.

“After we added Deluxe ID TheftBlock to our CorChecking service, many of our existing customers upgraded, and a large number of new customers began banking with us at this more profitable level of service,” Calhoun said. “It has been a real boon for our bank, because none of our competition can match this offering. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results, from either a customer satisfaction or a business perspective.”

PR ADVANTAGES
The addition of Deluxe ID TheftBlock has also helped CorTrust to position itself as an authority on banking security across South Dakota.

“We now have state-of-the art measures employed at every conceivable point of entry for thieves, including advanced online security, photo IDs on debit and ATM cards, plus a precaution against identity theft,” Calhoun said. “This has generated free publicity for our bank, and we make our security leadership a prominent message in all our advertising. We also send out newsletters that offer proactive security tips,  announce new security innovations and generally reinforce ourleadership in banking security.

“Combined, these security features provide our customers with utmost confidence and peace of mind, and have contributed greatly to our bottom-line performance,” Calhoun said. “We’re also in excellent shape for complying with the Red Flag rules that take effect this November. All things considered, the future looks great for CorTrust Bank.”

_{© 2012 Deluxe Enterprise Operations, Inc.}