Eltropy Launches Branded Calling

Eltropy, providers of technologies for credit unions and community banks, has launched Branded Calling that enables institutions to show their verified names and logos on consumers' phones.

Eltropy Branded Calling provides a tool for financial institutions to help their consumers protect against scam calls while increasing the institutions' ability to reach them as consumers are far more likely to answer a name than a number.

Before credit unions or community banks can use Branded Calling, they go through a vetting process where business identity is verified and logo is checked against trademark registries, among other steps. The technology itself relies on STIR/SHAKEN to authenticate the calling number and Rich Call Data to display the institution’s name and logo on supported phones.

"A credit union's or community bank's name is the most trusted thing it owns," said Ashish Garg, co-founder and CEO of Eltropy, in a statement. "It belongs on every call the institution makes, not hidden behind a phone number consumers have learned to ignore. When consumers see that name, they pick up, and the work gets done on the first call. Institutions already verify every consumer who calls in, with passcodes and security questions. Branded Calling gives consumers the same assurance in return."

"Credit unions and community banks conduct important outreach by phone: collections, loan follow-ups, fraud alerts, and service callbacks. But consumers often ignore numbers they don't recognize. Institutions pay for unanswered calls anyway, staff lose time to redials and voicemails, and carriers can start labeling the institution's numbers as spam," added Dibyendu Roy, senior director of product at Eltropy, in a statement.

Branded calling is currently supported on Android and iPhone devices on T-Mobile and Verizon, which together reach about 250 million U.S. mobile phones. AT&T support is coming soon. Calls to consumers on other carriers or unsupported devices connect as usual, with standard caller ID.