GIACT® Releases Report on the Staggering Cost of Returned Mail

DALLAS, March 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GIACT®, the leader in helping companies positively identify and authenticate customers, today announced a new report, Undeliverable as Addressed: The Staggering Cost of Returned Mail and How Proactive Identity Monitoring Can Solve the Problem, on the costly problem of returned mail as a result of deficient identity management. The report highlights the volume of consumer change events and the difficulties associated with keeping up-to-date consumer profiles; the compliance issues that follow undeliverable as addressed items; as well as best practices for implementing a proactive identity monitoring approach to streamline compliance and drastically reduce the number of returns.

Click here to download the white paper

According to the report, returned mail can cost businesses up to $25 per returned item which includes the additional effort required to correct the mistake and resend the item. Overall, according to the United States Postal Service, returned mail costs the mailing industry – a cost passed down to the originator, i.e., the business sending the mail – an estimated $20 billion annually. What is more, returned mail should be considered an identity theft red flag, triggering the sender to investigate and revalidate the customer to ensure KYC and the FTC's Red Flag Rule compliance.

"If you're a financial institution mailing account statements or an insurance company providing a policy update, the cost of a double-digit return rate on covered mail items can be in the hundreds of thousands," said Trace Fooshee, Senior Analyst with Aite Group's Fraud & AML practice. "It's an unnecessary cost. And the result of a reactive identity management approach. It's significantly more cost efficient to proactively monitor your customer population and address change events as they occur."

GIACT's report also details the benefits of proactive monitoring. Proactive monitoring, i.e., investigating your customer population on an ongoing basis, includes tightening the controls around identity verification and monitoring; monitoring change events as they occur; as well as introducing diverse data sets – including traditional and non-traditional data – to improve accuracy.

"Paper mail is still a critical and, in some cases, legally required aspect of business-to-customer communication. It can also be extremely costly if your customer population contact information isn't totally accurate," said David Barnhardt, Chief Experience Officer at GIACT. "By proactively monitoring your customer population, companies can not only lower the cost and headache of returned mail, but also reduce fraud and streamline compliance." 

To access the full white paper, click here.

About GIACT 
GIACT® has been helping companies verify valued customers since 2004. From financial to insurance, to retail, to solutions for your industry, GIACT offers customer intelligence for complete payment confidence. As the leader in providing real-time data to help companies mitigate payment risk and fraud, our OFAC screening, ID verification, account verification and authentication, and mobile verification solutions enable you to focus on providing unmatched customer experiences. Since our founding, we've processed billions of transactions for our more than 1,000 customers. For more information, visit www.giact.com or call 1-866-918-2409.  Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

SOURCE GIACT