Banks Soon to Abandon PIN – Report

An estimated 1.9 billion global bank customers will be using biometrics to access everyday banking services by the end of 2020.

This is according to the Goode Intelligence’s latest research, Biometrics for Banking; Market and Technology Analysis, Adoption Strategies and Forecasts 2018-2023: Second Edition, which highlights that consumer-led adoption of biometric authentication for banking purposes is on the rise and that by 2023 it will contribute $4.8 billion in revenue for companies involved in delivering biometric systems to the banking industry.

Alan Goode, founder and CEO of Goode Intelligence and author of the report, says biometrics for banking is increasingly a vital part of a bank’s toolkit in the never-ending task of reducing financial fraud.

“Biometric vendors are experiencing tremendous growth on the back of the escalation of consumer-led adoption of biometric authentication.

“Biometrics for banking is increasingly a vital part of a bank’s toolkit in the never-ending task of reducing financial fraud and ensuring that customers can conveniently prove their identity when accessing bank services, resulting in smarter identity verification and authentication for the customer-first bank.

“We have seen that the technology is being rapidly deployed to support a wide range of banking services, from the traditional to the new banking channels.

“Customer experience and convenience are major drivers for the adoption of biometrics by agile third parties wanting to differentiate their services with each other: it will be an ultra-competitive market and biometric authentication could be a key differentiator.”

According to the research, customers will be using biometrics to withdraw cash from ATMs, prove their identity when contacting their bank via telephone (both actively and passively), prove identity for digital on-boarding and access digital bank services through an increasing number of connected IOT devices.

Adds Goode: “We are only at the beginning of a movement that allows bank customers to access banking services from a wide range of intelligent connected devices.

“The availability of secure banking APIs, part of the Open Banking movement, is allowing third parties to integrate banking services into their devices and services allowing bank customers to better manage their day-to-day finances.

“Biometric technology is fast becoming the glue that binds this technology together. Of course, treating biometrics as an important tool for banks, rather than thinking of it as a silver bullet, is vital in ensuring that digital transformation projects that leverage biometric technology are successful.”