Increasing adoption of biometric ATMs but customers need better education on benefits

A growing number of publications and market research firms are releasing reports about the growing relevance of biometric technologies in Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

A post written by the director of product marketing for Financial Services at Red Hat, Fiona McNeill, described the ever-growing capabilities of ATMs, and in particular, their interconnectedness.

McNeill particularly sees benefit in remote updates, router interfacing, and links with payments networks and associated management consoles.

Moving forward, the Red Hat executive believes the deployment of biometric authentication and access in ATMs could both increase security and capability.

Such features would necessarily call for increased localized processing capabilities on individual machines, but McNeill believes it would be eventually worth it, as biometric technologies are known to lower friction and increase customer satisfaction.

ATMIA event highlights benefits of biometrics

Some of the above points were also discussed at an ATMIA event recently held in Las Vegas, moderated by the company’s executive director David Tente, and reported on by ATM Marketplace.

Stuart Mackinnon from Cardtronics, Michael Diamond from Mitek Systems, Nathan Dent from Fiserv and William Budde from Hyosung America also participated in the event.

During the panel discussion, Budde mentioned that many ATM vendors may not want to integrate biometrics into their machines as they would present additional costs and uncertain revenues, particularly since operators are also not properly communicating the benefits of biometrics for fighting fraud to customers.

However, Dent countered that biometrics can also benefit the customer, by enabling tailored services based on how it is utilized by individuals.

Tente added that the security of biometrics over traditional passwords is well-known, but he also agreed with Budde on the fact that customers should be better educated on the benefits of biometric authentication when it comes to ATMs.

Market report suggests increasing ATM biometrics adoption

The 37-page report was released by Mercator Advisory Group and paints a picture of ATM-related habits of 3,000 U.S. adults in December 2020.

According to the findings, 24 percent of surveyed customers were willing to test biometric authentication at ATMs, while 25 percent are not interested in the feature.

Similarly, 24 percent of respondents were interested in trying biometric authentication via smartphone to access ATM services, but 26 percent were not.

In addition, only 7 percent of surveyed consumers had tried multi-factor authentication (MFA) using biometrics and a one-time code at the ATM, and 5 percent using biometrics and a QR code.

The results of the report, together with other topics related to new methods of ATM authentication were recently discussed in a Truth In Data! Click episode.

Article Topics

ATMs  |  banking  |  biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  identity verification  |  market report  |  secure transactions