Can Biometrics bring Groundbreaking Progress for Financial Inclusion?
In our 3rd blog post in the series on Biometrics for Financial Inclusion, Stan Swearingen, Chief Executive Officer at IDEX Biometrics explains whether biometrics can bring groundbreaking progress for financial inclusion. The previous post in our series on “Biometrics for Financial Inclusion” looked at “how Biometric Identification can streamline financial operations“.
With the significant surge in global non-cash transactions, it is quite clear that financial inclusion has achieved much-needed recognition. Technology-dependent consumers are expecting easier and hassle-free financial experiences which is possible only through a sustainable system that assures fail safe security with speed and ease-of-use. While the fact remains that more than half of the citizens in the world are yet to have authorized payment cards, many are still trying to overcome demographic and literacy challenges to execute their banking errands. This is where biometric payment card systems can come into play and revolutionize financial regulations worldwide.
Biometrics as security enablers in Financial Inclusion
Biometric sensor technology identifies an individual’s physiological characteristics such as a fingerprint to validate the identity of an individual. The identification process is unique to the user making it highly secure, simple, and fast. It is also an excellent mechanism to fight the alarming menace of payment card fraudulence and reduces the need for remembering PINs or passwords.
Fingerprint sensor technology has been leveraged already in a number of environments such as access control and government ID to authenticate a user. However, it is no longer reserved for just these ecosystems and is ramping up to hit the financial services sector and serve the unbanked better than ever before. After passing engineering integration and validation, biometric-enabled payment card system sareready to serve the customers better. Since fingerprint recognition is an absolute unique identifier, it is a ground-breaking method to authenticate a person, even those with literacy challenges and make it much easier for them to perform financial transactions anywhere, anytime. Additionally, the cost of biometric-enabled payment cards is much lower than traditional identification processes such as PINs and passwords. The best part is the on-card enrollment process which is as simple as the press of a finger on the fingerprint sensor where no additional applications or equipment is required from the user’s end.
Now the question arises if this system can actually bring a progressive change to financial inclusion. With the positive pilots and customer engagements run to date by leading biometric sensor technology providers, it does not seem to be a far-fetched reality.
The previous post in our series on “Biometrics for Financial Inclusion” looked at “how Biometric Identification can streamline financial operations“.
