This new savings account is designed to make it inconvenient for you – and fraudsters – to move your money. And it pays interest. Is it worth making the switch?
Scammers are increasingly defrauding consumers by either illegally obtaining their account information or deceiving them into making rash decisions. American consumers lost $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% increase from the prior year, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission.
As consumer losses to bank fraud mount, one bank is betting that savers will soon choose security over convenience. Austin Capital Bank, a Texas-based community bank with national fintech brands such as CreditStrong, just launched what it is calling a high-security savings account.
Fort Knox, one of Austin Capital’s fintech trademarks, debuted the new account on Thursday. It is available to consumers nationwide.
The account stands out for the simple fact that pulling money out of it isn’t particularly easy or fast. And that’s on purpose, says Erik Beguin, founder and CEO of Austin Capital Bank.
“It shouldn’t be easy to access your savings on a whim,” says Beguin. “It shouldn’t be easy to wire your life savings to eastern Europe or Africa or southeast Asia. We have intentional friction, and we’re going to be very upfront about the intentional friction.”
Fort Knox aims to protect customers’ savings from fraudsters by combining multiple layers of security. There are no passwords, account numbers or debit cards to steal. You can’t transfer money to anyone else. Want to move money into your own checking account? You’ll have to wait two business days to think about it. And those are just the most basic security measures. Customers can choose to add additional layers of security to their accounts.
…continued at: https://www.usnews.com/banking/articles/high-security-savings-fort-knox-account-aims-to-shield-customers-from-fraud
