Mobey Forum publishes biometrics in payments paper

Mobey Forum has published a new whitepaper entitled “Biometrics in Payments: Touching Convenience”, which focuses on the applicability of biometrics as a method of identification, authentication and authorization for services in mobile banking and payments services.

The study is based on a survey Mobey Forum conducted earlier this year that questioned 235 respondents from Europe, North America and the Middle East — 59% of which were from banks and other financial institutions and 32% were from solution providers.

In the paper, Mobey Forum states that the acceleration of mobile in the banking sector depends on the further advancement of biometrics.

In partnership with mobile, biometrics offers several benefits, especially in the area of user experience. Biometrics can also help to improve multiple areas of financial services including employee screening, know-your-customer, online dealing transactions, and insurance.

The results of the survey found that security is a minimum requirement for banks and payment service providers, however, customers will not adopt security measures that are inconvenient.

The survey found that users of all ages are generally positive towards biometrics while the historic concerns about biometrics regarding accuracy and price are no longer as pressing as in the past.

Still, many people still have concerns regarding security. The paper states that for biometrics to succeed, it must be used in combination with secure technologies for storage and processing.

The study also shows that the majority of banks intend to implement biometrics in the relatively near future, just as the number of smartphone manufacturers planning to integrate biometric capabilities into their devices increases.

Though the integration of biometrics into smartphones has removed a significant level of cost from banks, these financial institutions must ensure that they do not lose a similar level of control.

This issue can be potentially avoided through biometric modalities that use integrated handset peripherals like the camera and microphone, which limit the influence of OEM third parties.

The paper also states that to move forward, banks must make a range of choices about factors such as system architectures, biometric modalities, proprietary or open solutions, security, and collaboration versus competition.

Article Topics

banking  |  biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  identification  |  Mobey Forum  |  mobile commerce  |  security  |  white paper