How Businesses Can Leverage Biometric Identification to Promote a Cashless Society
In the 2nd blog post in our series on a cashless society, David Orme, SVP Sales and Marketing at IDEX Biometrics considers how businesses can leverage biometric identification to promote a cashless society. The previous post in our series on a cashless society looked at how biometric payment cards can facilitate the move toward a cashless society.
Creating a cashless society has its benefits. Using payment cards creates an audit trail immediately, for example. Cash is unsecure and can be lost, stolen or misplaced. Once gone, it is gone for good. However, some people are concerned that a cashless society isn’t possible at all, let alone feasible. Educating the public on how cashless transactions can benefit them and making biometric technology as accessible as possible will help facilitate a reduction in cash transactions.
How Biometrics Influence Cashless Transactions
Credit cards have long been an option as a payment method for many businesses. With advanced technology, credit cards have become the preferred payment method for many businesses these days. Not only do they create an audit trail with little work from the business perspective, they are also a more secure means of conducting business overall. Cash creates a unique set of obstacles, from safe, secure storage to increased theft and fraud risk. This is a primary reason that many businesses are hopeful that a cashless society is in their future.
Creating a biometric identifier enables consumers to securely conduct transactions using data that is unique to them. The uniqueness of this identifier enables consumers to have a hand in protecting their data during business transactions, making this a highly desirable method for transferring money.
How Businesses Can Benefit From Biometrics
Businesses can benefit from the use of biometrics as opposed to cash in a variety of ways. From the no longer required secure location to store cash to a reduction in theft and burglary risk, businesses stand to receive many security benefits from the use of biometric payment systems. Use of these systems can also help reduce the chance that a business will face fraud claims for transactions processed both in-person and via the web, as adding a layer of biometric security to the payment processing system creates a unique and difficult to duplicate data point. This protects both the business and the consumer.
How Cashless Transactions Reduce Theft
Cash is among the most easily stolen commodities. From personal robberies and business robberies to bank robberies, thieves prefer cash for its transferability. Reducing the amount of cash used for business transactions–or eliminating it altogether–reduces the risk of theft for both consumers and businesses. Implementing cashless transaction options does require some forethought on the part of a business. However, once implemented, many of these methods manage themselves and put the burden of proof on the consumer, where it should be. This helps reduce theft and fraud, saving companies thousands of dollars each year.
It is in the best interest of businesses large and small to work toward development of a cashless society. Biometric identification is a great way to encourage this shift, and it is one that can significantly protect businesses and consumers to reduce the risk of theft or fraud.
The previous post in our series on a cashless society looked at how biometric payment cards can facilitate the move toward a cashless society.
