Banks Increase Digital Debit Card Safeguards; Address Rising Elder Fraud Prevention and Caregiver Oversight with Online Banking Account Access Privileges
Wilmington, Del., November 19, 2025 – Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of its semi-annual Online Banker Scorecard for Q4 2025. Among Keynova Group’s competitive evaluation of the 18 leading U.S. retail banks’ digital experience, Bank of America continues its first-place streak.
The latest Scorecard findings reveal that banks are enhancing online debit card security with safeguards to combat persistent fraud threats and are starting to enable assigned account access privileges to address the growing role of caregivers or professional advisors in managing finances for others. Many banks are also expanding resources to help raise the awareness of elder fraud and to help customers detect and mitigate scams targeting older populations.
“Banks are evolving their offerings to address increasingly sophisticated digital fraud targeting aging consumers and to support caregivers who they may rely on for managing their finances,” said Susan Foulds, managing director of Keynova Group. “By reinforcing online debit card security features, augmenting resources and guidance about rising elder fraud and introducing caregiver-focused digital tools, banks can help protect customers and build their trust, ensuring that every generation can digitally bank with confidence.”
Key Findings:
Debit Card Safeguards Help Mitigate Fraud
Providing accountholders with debit card alerts and controls helps consumers to monitor spending, manage budgets and guard against account fraud. Opt-in alerts for card not present (CNP) purchases such as online, phone or mail-in orders are now offered by two-thirds of Scorecard banks. Half also provide alerts for debit card purchases exceeding a customer-assigned maximum dollar threshold. To assist with spending controls and prevent unauthorized use of debit cards, nearly 25% of banks–– including scorecard leader Bank of America––enable users to block or set limits on specific types of transactions such as CNP or foreign transactions and/or to set daily or per-transaction limits on card purchases.
Assigned Digital Access Privileges on the Rise
An emerging service in online banking allows consumer account owners to grant digital rights with credentials to trusted family members, friends or professional advisors for controlled or limited account access to help manage their finances. While the feature is common in small
business banking, only 20% of the Online Banker Scorecard banks―including KeyBank, Huntington, and Wells Fargo―now extend this capability to consumers. Huntington Bank stands out for offering tiered permissions such as options for view-only access or for making payments and transfers; these tools and other resources are packaged within a well-designed guide for caregivers.
Increasing Content and Resources to Help Combat Elder Fraud
As financial fraud affecting elders continues to escalate, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reports a 40+% increase in complaints among those over age 60 in 2024. In response, some banks are recognizing the responsibility to help educate this digitally vulnerable group and their caregivers or professional advisors. More than half of the leading Scorecard banks provide educational information and guidance about elderly financial scams and recommended safeguards and security best practices. Nearly all (90%) of the evaluated banks also enable multi-recipient alerts––such as debit transaction thresholds or daily balance and transaction summaries––as an option to notify trusted third parties.
About the Online Banker Scorecard
Keynova Group’s semi-annual, fact-based Online Banker Scorecard, offered for more than two decades, evaluates digital user capabilities, customer experience elements and best practices to identify evolving trends and insights that drive online strategy in banking. The evaluation encompasses the websites of Bank of America, BMO, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Citizens Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, PNC, Regions Bank, Santander, TD Bank, Truist, USAA, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. A separate semi-annual Mobile Banker Scorecard reviews the mobile app and mobile web experience. For more information please visit: https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#banking
About Keynova Group
Keynova Group is the nation’s foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Group’s Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firm’s proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.
For more information:
Meggan Manson
Young & Associates, for Keynova Group
301-371-6995
megganm@yapr.com