Revolut has ramped up its security for customers amid renewed concerns over rates of muggings in the capital.
The London fintech has introduced an extra layer of in-app identity verification designed to prevent thieves from accessing customer savings within its mobile app.
Banking apps typically rely on a single biometric authorisation, such as facial or fingerprint recognition) when customers open the app, which can become completely vulnerable if a pickpocket gains access to the device and changes the registered fingerprint or image to their own.
Dubbed ‘Wealth Protection’, Revolut’s update will verify the identity of the user against the selfie ID checks that the customer completed when first signing up to the app, significantly hampering fraudsters' attempts to transfer money out of their savings accounts, even if their phone security has been compromised.
The security upgrades come amid reports of a surge in phone snatching. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show a 34 per cent rise in knifepoint robberies in London last year.
The total of 8,956 offences recorded include muggings carried out by offenders on two wheels and amounted to an increase of 2,248 additional offences compared with the previous 12 months and an average of 25 muggings a day.
Woody Malouf, Head of Financial Crime at Revolut, said: “With phone thefts on the rise, Wealth Protection has been built to counteract theft by providing our customers with that extra layer of security when you’re out and about this summer.
“Our customers will be able to rest easy knowing that even if their phone is lost or stolen, their hard earned savings are more secure.”
Other statistics presented by the Met Commissioner to the London Policing Board in March show that robbery overall has also increased, by 20 per cent, but that the success rate in detecting the culprits has fallen to just 5.7 per cent. That was down on the already low figure of 7.9 per cent recorded a year earlier and means that more than nine out of 10 muggings are going unsolved.
The menace was brought into sharp focus earlier this week when a prolific mugger riding a high speed e-bike was brought to justice. Sonny Stringer, 28, from Islington, snatched mobile phones from 24 people in a day-long crime spree across central London.
He was caught when police made “tactical contact” with the rear wheel of his bike and knocked him off.
