Support for innovation, regulatory pressure spur biometric payments expansion

A new partnership, solution and regulatory rule indicate the expansion of biometric authentication for payments, with Liquid Avatar, India’s Wibmo and Pakistan’s state bank, respectively, announcing actions. Visa and Mastercard are both increasing their support for payment innovation, while the market is forecast for rapid growth in the latest biometric payments report.

Behavior-based security looms large in payments market growth projection

New research report by the Mercator Advisory Group “Biometrics Use Is on the Rise for Payments: Banks and Merchants, Get Ready to Adopt Faces and Fingertips for Authentication” explains the current market and discusses the driving factors that are influencing the rate of adoption of these technologies.

Outlining the successes and failures of implementing biometric authentication by global entities, the report draws out insights on how to introduce innovative products in this field. Commonly used biometrics for authentication include facial and fingerprint verification.

“Since our 2017 report, COVID-19 and shifting consumer preferences have accelerated the deployment of biometric authentication in the payments industry. In this rapidly developing field, it is necessary to have a firm understanding of the potential and limitations of the technology, including anticipated challenges in tailoring it to meet your market needs. It is time for all payments and financial entities to learn about privacy concerns and legislation, new developments, and the partnership opportunities in biometrics.” says Tim Sloane, VP of Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group.

The use of biometric payments has rapidly increased in recent years, with some examples this year including Moscow’s new metro facial payment system, POS payments by VisionLab and robotic drink kiosks.

A key topic mentioned in the research includes how the introduction of behavior-based security has the potential to transform the payments industry, for example through the rise of behavioral biometrics in fraud detection and prevention. Feedzai’s Quarterly Financial Crime Report showed that online fraud attempts in card payments have increased by 23 percent within 2 months in 2021.

Visa’s Accelerator Program seeks established startups to boost digital-first experiences

Visa’s Accelerator Program is now searching for Asia-Pacific based startups for its 2022 cohort, to tackle some of the most pressing financial and technological opportunities in the region.

Designed for startups that have already launched successful solutions in their home markets, the program aims to help those who are looking towards the next stage of growth. This will include identifying commercial opportunities for the startups to collaborate with Visa and its extensive network of bank, merchant and government partners. Visa also has a Fintech Partner Connect Program which helps financial institutions select key technologies for digital-first experiences.

Issues to tackle in the Accelerator Program will encompass; money movement between consumers, businesses and governments, delivery of digital currencies via blockchain, and leveraging open data for advanced decision-making among others.

Applications open 3 November 2021 and close on 9 January 2022, with the program commencing in mid-April 2022.

Mastercard expanding Developers Portfolio

Mastercard’s Developers portfolio acts as a platform for fintech innovators to collaborate, build and take new solutions to market at a fast pace. A recent addition of differentiated services to power new ways to pay, enhance the customer experience and infuse trust across the payments ecosystem means partners will have a single point of entry to technology, products and partnerships.

The company already has fintech partnerships in 172 countries and continues to partner, collaborate and invest in the tools to take innovative solutions, like Idemia’s biometric payment card platform, to billions of consumers.

Mastercard is publishing two new API services every month, and the portfolio provides an express lane for companies to bring innovative solutions to market. Key components include: API Platform, Fintech Community, Solutions, Startup Program and Partner Networks.

Liquid Avatar managing digital credentials, US launch

Liquid Avatar has partnered with California-based Optimize Fintech Technology (OptimizeFT) to launch a fintech and neobanking solution for holding, managing and controlling digital credentials using the Liquid Avatar Mobile App, Liquid Avatar Verifiable Credential Ecosystem (LAVCE). The payment account will be powered by the OptimizeFT’s Engage360 payment card and digital banking solutions platform.

The first step in opening an account is provided by Liquid Avatar, which establishes a blockchain-based digital ID for the user with biometric onboarding.

Initially expected to be available to U.S. businesses and consumers in the first half of 2022, the company hopes to expand beyond the U.S. to launch financial solutions targeting multiple demographics within the consumer base.

The motivation behind the solution’s development is increased security in digital banking, according to the announcement. Users will be able to leverage a government issued and other digital ID, with verification possible at healthcare facilities, testing labs, government agencies and many others. The global prepaid card market size was valued at $1.73 trillion in 2019, and Allied Market Research predicts that it is projected to reach $6.87 trillion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18.2 percent from 2021 to 2030

Liquid Avatar Mobile App is available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.

Wibmo launches biometric payments app

Wibmo,  a provider of business-critical digital payment solutions, has launched its latest service. Tridentity is a multi-factor solution for uniform authentication (via SDK) for digital payment channels offering offline OTPs, push notifications, and biometrics.

Tridentity balances convenience and security by integrating with mobile banking apps (supporting both iOS and Android). Wibmo says benefits of the solution include a reduction in overall operational cost, fraud reduction, improved customer experience, reduced cart abandonment resulting in increased revenue for merchants, and simplified funds transfers and logins.

“The security challenges with SMS delivery, abandoned carts, and low success rates have been intrinsic of the SMS OTP model since its inception. It is a time when consumers want convenience as well as speed and security; if SMS delivery fails or is delayed, the consumer’s experience is impacted” says Suresh Rajagopalan, CEO, Wibmo.

“Now, consumers can seamlessly authenticate for all payment channels using an array of customizable solutions.”

Pakistan expands biometrics requirement to more financial services

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has made it mandatory for Exchange Companies (ECs) to implement an integrated biometric verification system (BVS) before June 2022 reports Dawn, and conduct biometric verification for all foreign currency sale transactions equivalent to $500 and above.

All exchange companies (ECs) and the exchange companies of ‘B’ category (ECs-B) have been advised to deploy NADRA’s BVS from November 5th, The News International reports, however ECs maintain that so far Nadra has not provided BVS.

New controls were imposed by the State Bank of Pakistan this month to curb the flow of illicit funding into Afghanistan from between $7 million and $8 million daily to between $2 million and $3 million.

The SBP had originally allowed the ECs sector to accommodate customers by using the services of an Android facility of NADRA, e-Sahulat, which is designed for consumers and retailers, pending the implementation of Android-based BVS.

Article Topics

authentication  |  banking  |  behavioral biometrics  |  biometrics  |  financial services  |  fintech  |  Liquid Avatar  |  market report  |  Mastercard  |  secure transactions  |  Visa  |  Wibmo