Biometrics can be the answer to a more secure and faster system where monetary transactions are done via the mobile phone. Indeed, biometrics is bound to witness a rapid surge, particularly in the financial sector, with banks developing new technologies to protect individual data and improve customer experience when money is being transacted.
What exactly is biometrics and authentication?
Basically, biometric authentication is the use of biology and technology for security purposes. By the year 2020, it will replace ID cards, PINS and passwords that are actually used for gaining access to bank accounts or into any digital system. A simple example can be the authentication of a user’s identity before he/she is allowed to use a credit card to pay for a product or retrieve money. The verification here can be done through fingerprints, facial, voice or iris recognition. Mostly for online transactions via smart phones, biometrics can really revolutionize the market and make chip cards obsolete.
It is mostly a question of security
The internet, smart phone and other gadgets are expanding the frontier of a new world where everything is done with the simple touch of a button or tap on a screen. Since it is easy for users to pay with their mobile phones via the internet, it is also easier for someone to hack into your system and do whatever they want. And that is why biometric is crucial for the future development of mobile phone payment. A strong and unbreachable network is the key to reassure people to use their phones for any type of transaction.
Biometrics essentially mean more advanced methods of authentication
With the banking and airline industries falling prey to cyber-attacks during the past years, the need for stronger authentication methods for payment has become essential. Be it the retail, entertainment and hotel sector, verification barriers such as biometrics can help protect them from breaches and frauds. Although much needs to be done in terms of research and tests, the potential is there.
What are the advantages of the biometric system?
Be it the bank or customers, biometric authentication brings a wide range of benefits. It will inevitably give a competitive edge as better security increases trust, thus improving business opportunity. Additionally, it will solidify and simplify proof of identity procedures. There is also the question of fraud detection and improving identity management, which is vital for banks. As a matter of fact, when combining biometrics with other developing technologies, we can improve transparency, data analytics and real-time risk assessment. Finally, it will definitely increase efficiency by reducing cost, enhance internal control and facilitate auditing.
Customers want a more sophisticated mobile payment experience
Retailers have to take into account the changing behavior of customers when it comes to mobile transaction. Obviously, the more advanced the technology, the more businesses have to adapt to these innovations. Smart phone users are always on the lookout for smoother and more effective shopping experiences. Since traditional payment method is a complicated ecosystem, service providers have to come forward with new ideas and technologies that is simpler for users to understand. With biometrics, consumers are looking for an improvement in mobile payment solutions. For businesses, a fully secure, upgraded and sophisticated mobile shopping will be the key to people’s acceptance of mobile payments in the years to come.
The next couple of years will be crucial for biometrics
Biometrics is going to be the most important mobile payment in 2020. As per Acuity Market Intelligence, the use of biometrics to protect mobile payments will affect more than 65 percent of smart phone users. With an expected revenue of more than 34 billion dollars, mobile payments will dominate all means of monetary transactions in the future. BI Intelligence and Juniper Research are positive that in the next couple of years the number of users is forecasted to be around 99 percent in the US alone and that at least 770 million biometric authentication apps will be downloaded every year.
Your body parts are your new passwords
Indeed, your body parts will one day replace traditional payment systems and become your new password. Apart from being secure, the convenience and advantages biometrics give people is one of its key points. Biometrics allows users the leisure of not needing to remember complicated and long passwords since the fingerprint doesn’t require any memory and is a part of the body.
Biometrics is worlds apart compared to chip cards
Indeed, chip cards like EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa have the necessary protection for your peace of mind. However, with hackers trying to find more intelligent and innovative ways to break into accounts, the chip card will soon become obsolete. With biometrics, things get way more complicated for hackers as it is much more difficult when body parts are used for authentication. In the near future, banks will be more equipped to prevent fraud with biometric credit and debit cards that are fingerprint-activated.
