Albania's national postal service, Albanian Post, is one of the largest financial services providers in the country. Since only about half of Albania's adult population has a bank account, Albanian Post is exceptionally well-positioned to provide accessible banking and payment services, especially in rural areas.
Albanian Post can easily reach people all over the country with their 550+ post office locations. To make their financial services attractive to a more tech-savvy audience, it also released an iOS and Android app that was built in cooperation with Helius Systems, a leading software vendor in Albania.
The application from Albanian Post (iOS, Android) has to compete toe-to-toe with well-established fintech apps. As a result, an improved user experience was a significant motivation for implementing a user-friendly authentication flow based on mobile security components from Wultra. The app's users can log in or approve payments simply by entering a PIN code, or by using face recognition or a fingerprint scan.
Strong customer authentication and secure payments are top priorities for us. We want to drive the adoption of our mobile app in the Albanian market. To achieve this, people need to use our app with confidence.
Erdet Kellici, Albanian Post
Head of Information Technology and Development Unit
Despite dramatically improving the user experience, the process is, in fact, more secure than with conventional credentials. The authentication module tightly links the specific mobile device with the app user's identity. Finally, the implementation of cryptographic authentication provides a solid basis for future regulatory compliance in banking and electronic payments.