Digital wallets present biometrics providers with another potential next big thing

Biometrics look likely to be a key part of many or most digital wallets, and the evolution of multi-purpose digital wallets and IDs was a theme running through several of the week’s top stories on Biometric Update. Sweden’s BankID is expanding, Karine Martinez of PPS explains the role biometrics will play in digital wallets as they become ubiquitous, and a white paper written by IDnow for the FIDO Alliance positions the passwordless protocol for the future of Europe’s digital wallets. The perspective of startup AiPrise on the future of KYC and another white paper, this one from iProov on bringing biometrics to bear in the fight against fraud on public sector programs were also among the most-read articles this week.

Top biometrics news of the week

A white paper from iProov reviews the sobering statistics on the growth of fraud against the public sector in the United States. The company also has some suggestions for how to stem the tide, starting with biometric identity verification.

A new general-purpose digital ID is being launched by Sweden’s BankID within the next few months. People are expected to be able to use it for identity and age verification with retailers, but not for international travel. Businesses can verify the ID by scanning a barcode.

Could BankID be evolving into a super wallet?

Digital wallets are taking off, and broadening their scope to make them super wallets is the next step, PPS Head of Sales Karine Martinez writes in a Biometric Update guest post. The security of even single purpose crypto wallets is already crucial, and multi-factor biometric authentication is well-suited to provide it without introducing unnecessary friction, Martinez argues.

A new white paper authored by IDnow for the FIDO Alliance describes how governments can use the passwordless protocol with the EU Digital Identity Wallet, and how such an implementation fits with eIDAS2. The white paper provides analysis of how the regulation applies and technical descriptions of how Type 2 EUDI Wallet configurations with FIDO can work.

NADRA is the latest player in the global AFIS vendor market, having brought its fingerprint biometrics software NADIR to commercial availability. NADIR’s algorithms have been benchmarked in two categories of the Fingerprint Verification Competition (FVC) at the University of Bologna. NADRA’s AFIS was developed in-house for domestic government use, but the agency has experience supporting governments in several other countries.

Chaitanya Sarda, co-founder of startup AiPrise tells Biometric Update in an interview that local KYC and fraud prevention vendors have the capacity to serve people who global vendors cannot reach. His company intends to deliver one-click KYC around the world as an orchestrator of those vendors.

The World Bank is supporting a social welfare program in Nigeria intended to ease the impact of the end of a fuel subsidy with an $800 million loan. With domestic solutions for address and identity verification available, a bank official is being urged to put measures in place to prevent fraud in the issuance on the benefits.

ID30 Senior Consultant Jaume Dubois argues that current technologies are increasing the digital gap they are supposed to help close. Only by embracing digital public infrastructure and digital public goods can governments realize their development goals, he writes.

The state of the art in liveness detection is advancing as the ecosystem of researchers, developers and testing labs matures. Reliable market forecasts should follow, but in the meantime, vendors report adoption in a range of industries, led by financial services, but also prominently including mobile healthcare, crypto platforms, and dating apps.

Onfido has settled a biometric data privacy lawsuit in the U.S. for $28.5 million, pending approval. The company maintains it did nothing wrong, but will pay out a large BIPA settlement relative to other identity verification providers to bring the case to a close.

Many have heard of the seven words you can’t say on television, but few outside of Dahua have heard of the 30 banned words you can’t say in company marketing materials, as reported by IPVM. A leaked email proscribes everything from “AI” and “broadband” to “ethnicity,” in some cases suggesting alternatives. Instead of “facial recognition,” employees are advised to say “face detection.”

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Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  mobile app  |  week in review