Biometrics race for the borders

Biometrics to ease border crossings are a major theme of the week among Biometric Update’s most-read articles of the week. Airports around the world are quickly adopting biometrics, with SITA, Amadeus and Idemia staking market share, but the adoption still may not be reaching enough ports fast enough to keep EES on schedule. West African governments are planning to act faster for biometrics ID cards that can be for travel within the region, Identyum’s CEO talks about Bosnia and Herzegovina’s forthcoming digital wallet and Austroads is quickly moving towards acceptance of mDLs at airports. Visa also shows up in two stories, for its acquisition of fraud analysis provider Featurespace for hundreds of millions of dollars and a partnership with the UNDP on financial inclusion in Somalia.

Top biometrics news of the week

Even Europe’s largest countries are having trouble implementing the biometric EES, blaming a balky computer system run by eu-LISA for their inability to run required tests before a launch still planned for November. The European Commission, however, has admitted that still more delays could be necessary.

SITA is reporting major benefits for flyers and the aviation industry from adopting biometrics and digital identity in its latest Passenger IT Insights report. And adoption continues, with Amadeus software is running on biometric kiosks coming to Norwegian airports, Idemia’s technology is going live at Spokane and coming available to more travelers at Singapore’s Changi.

The number of fraudulent bank accounts in Vietnam has dropped by 72 percent since the introduction of a biometric identity verification requirement, according to state bank figures. The passage of Vietnam’s digital identity law spurred biometrics enrollment for 13 million people, and requires biometric registration for all online transactions by the beginning of 2025.

Visa has added fraud detection and risk management tools with the acquisition of UK-based Featurespace at a price tag that one estimate put in the high hundreds of millions of dollars. Featurespace developed algorithms to analyze transaction data and detect fraud patterns, anticipating and adapting to changing threats.

The UNDP and Visa have partnered to bring financial services to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Somalia, in particular those run by people from underserved or vulnerable populations. The partners will work with NIRA on expanding the country’s national digital ID, and focus on digital transformation as a vehicle for economic growth.

Bhutan has joined the Global Acceptance Network to help integrate its NDI with trust ecosystems and other digital IDs, the first national ID program to do so. Accenture, NTT Digital, Gen, Trinsic, Yoti, cheqd, Danube Tech and GLEIF are all part of the GAN Foundation, which soft-launched the initiative last month.

ECOWAS member countries have resolved to speed up issuance of the region’s biometric ID card to ease cross-border travel and regional integration. Immigration service heads from a dozen nations agreed to roll out the ENBIC faster and get rid of a 90-day stay limit.

Laxton describes how its biometric registration gear contributes to Ethiopia’s identity system, as well as the overall MOSIP-based national ID program, in a case study. The company highlights the training, accessories to enable mobile registration and technical support that make the biometric kits helpful for Ethiopia’s drive to register 90 million people by 2030.

Austroads has launched a pre-production version of its Digital Trust Service based on the VICAL PKD for ISO 18013-compliant mDLs. The DTS is intended to harmonize digital wallets and credentials both nationally and internationally. The DTS also passed an interoperability test, as mDLs from Australia, the U.S. and Europe were used in a test with CAT-2s from Idemia. California’s mDL hackathon and a Trinsic adoption report also show the momentum around digital driver’s licenses.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is preparing to launch a digital wallet developed by Croatia-based Identyum ahead of general availability in the first half of next year. The company’s CEO Robert Ilijaš discusses the company’s preference for biometrics over device ownership for passwordless access and the role of digital identity in the economy as infrastructure in an interview with Biometric Update.

NIST Researcher Mei Lee Ngan writes about presentation attacks, technology bias and dealing with the attention her facial recognition testing work receives in a blog post. She notes in the process that the agency is currently looking into algorithms for face morphing detection.

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Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  week in review