Credit unions and community banks are tackling the challenge of impersonation fraud and declining consumer confidence in phone calls with a new feature introduced by Eltropy, an Agentic AI Platform. The company has launched Branded Calling, which allows financial institutions to display their verified name and logo on consumers’ mobile phones when making calls. This innovation aims to help consumers distinguish legitimate calls from scams and improve call response rates by presenting recognizable institutional identities instead of unfamiliar phone numbers.
The launch of Branded Calling comes at a crucial time as financial institutions face increasing difficulties with impersonation scams. These institutions commonly use telephone communication for essential functions like collections, loan follow-ups, fraud notifications, and customer service callbacks. However, unanswered calls can lead to repeated attempts and additional staff workload, with the risk of legitimate institutional numbers being labeled as spam over time.
Ashish Garg, co-founder and CEO of Eltropy, underscored the importance of a financial institution’s name in establishing consumer trust. He explained that Branded Calling extends the assurance that institutions provide through traditional customer verification methods, like passcodes and security questions. Dibyendu Roy, Senior Director of Product at Eltropy, added that unanswered calls can lead to operational costs, consume staff time through redials and voicemail follow-ups, and potentially harm the reputation of institutional phone numbers.
Research has shown that branded identification can significantly impact consumer response rates. A Twilio experiment indicated that consumers answered branded calls approximately three times more often than unbranded ones, with response rates of 62% versus 20%. Eltropy’s Branded Calling is designed to ensure important communications from financial institutions reach consumers effectively while making suspicious calls more easily identifiable.
The service is currently available for supported Android and iPhone devices via T-Mobile and Verizon networks, reaching about 250 million mobile phones in the United States. Support for AT&T is expected soon, while calls to customers with other carriers or unsupported devices will continue to display standard caller ID. Participating credit unions and community banks must complete a verification process to activate the feature, including confirming their business identity and checking logos against trademark registries.
The introduction of Branded Calling addresses two key priorities for community-focused financial institutions: improving consumer protection against impersonation scams and enhancing the effectiveness of customer communication. As branded identification gains wider support across mobile networks and devices, it could help these institutions strengthen consumer recognition and reduce the uncertainty associated with unknown callers.
About Eltropy
Eltropy is the Agentic AI Platform for Credit Unions and Community Banks. We bring humans and AI together to serve communities better. From answering a question to resolving a request, AI agents handle the routine tasks working alongside your team that provides the human touch. Built-in Safe AI guardrails and a human-in-the-loop approach ensure AI operates within policy and people remain in control. More than 750 financial institutions trust Eltropy to drive growth, experience, efficiency, and compliance. Visit eltropy.com to learn more.
Steve Jensen
Eltropy
[email protected]
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