All I wanted to do this afternoon was make a £913 payment to a new payee using one of my UK banks accounts to a UK supplier. But goodness me, we - collectively as an industry - still make this type of activity difficult. Because it was a new payee.

Danger, Will Robinson.

I used my default UK bank's mobile app to add a payee and pay £250 to the supplier within about 60 seconds. That is good. Really good, fast. So far, I'm on 10 out of 10. I'm normally delighted with the service in the mobile app.

When it came to the other £613 due to the supplier... that was where the problems began. I was able to make that first £250 payment because it was at the fraud-challenge-threshold - a higher amount would automatically require proper authentication.  

I was prompted by the mobile app to use 'Online Banking' if I wanted to make another payment to this new payee today. That's because I now need to go through the full kitchen-sink style authentication. I understand why - this is a key anti-fraud measure. Millions are lost by banks every month in the fight against fraud refunds and losses.

But it's also seriously frustrating for the end-consumer to have access to such easy TouchID or FaceID enabled activity most of the time, then to be forced to regress back to the 1990s to add new payee information. 

In the end I was forced to use online banking. I was reminded by my bank that mobile banking is still an add-on. The prompt even demanded that if I wanted to make further payments to this new payee, I would need to use online banking.

It's interesting that in today's world, many banks still view online banking 'on the web' as the primary interface for their consumers (indeed, many banks have made the switch in their culture, if not their processes, away from branch being primary to online banking as the last resort.

Why hasn't the mobile app been enabled to support the required kitchen-sink authentication? Not even the iPad app qualifies as 'online banking'. 

No. You need to use a web browser and login the old way.

I think I last did that about 3 months ago.

So, I got my credentials wrong when I logged in first time.

Danger Will Robinson! Danger!

The fact I've got my credentials correct for the last 3 months on a more-or-less daily basis (but using FaceID) and the fact I've transferred tens of thousands in this time using this authentication method doesn't, as anyone working in fraud will know, matter.

It does matter to the consumer. It's infuriating to the consumer.

A 60-second process - typing the sort code, account number and value (and double-checking) turned into a 15-minute extravaganza for me. 

We still have quite a way to go as an industry. 

I'm keen to understand what your experience is in your local market. Here in Denmark, there's a NemID system - a list of randomly generated pin codes that you need to use for any type of strong authentication. It's a bit annoying, but it does work - and it is quick. Quicker than having to go to a web browser.

I'm pleased to report that with Nordea here in Denmark, I would have still been able to do that whole new payee process in about 60 seconds (with a NemID challenge built-in to that 60 seconds).