The financial sector has been one of the pioneers in the use of biometric technology, especially over the last three years when the COVID pandemic forced a global lockdown and consequently offline transactions were out the question. From 2020 to now, digital onboarding has become more frequent for both online and offline banking.

By adopting biometric authentication for their procedures, from onboarding to managing accounts and transactions, the financial and banking industry was able to offer their users a more agile and unobtrusive onboarding process, reducing password fatigue and delivering an enhanced user experience at the same time.

For users, security and a good UX are priorities when accessing their financial institutions (FIs). A recent study by Pymnts.com  found that 68% of the 2,719 consumers surveyed chose security over convenience when accessing financial services accounts online.

The report also stresses that security is “highly” important for 83% of respondents, and a good user experience is “highly” important for 80%.

Biometric authentication in FIs

Biometrics is the most reliable system of authenticating identities. Unlike the two other types of authentication credentials (knowledge and possession), biometric authentication is based in the measurement and analysis of individual physical characteristics unique to each person which can’t easily be hacked. With biometric authentication all a person requires is him/herself.

Biometric patterns can’t easily be hacked, making biometric authentication one of the methods most resistant to counterfeiting and spoofing.

However, currently and although biometric identification can be used alone, according to the report 2022 Innovation Insight for Biometric Authentication by Gartner, in the banking industry it is “often integrated with some kind of token” as part of the standard biometric identification spectrum such as Open ID and FIDO.

Some advantages of biometric technology for FIs

1. For financial and banking institutions the security challenge is to ensure their onboarding process for new customers is thorough, but not discouraging them by being too time-consuming. Biometrics offers both security and enhanced UX.
2. Given that device-native biometric methods are almost ubiquitous in new phones, tablets and PCs, allow new users to get onboard with the minimum effort and the highest security for consumers is a leverage for FIs.
3. Biometric identity authentication also helps in risk management, providing the means to address diversity, equity and inclusion concerns, avoiding any prejudiced assessment by providing an accessible and reliable authentication option for customers.
4. Biometric onboarding processes through either fingerprint or facial recognition allow banks to manage risk and comply with Anti-Money Laundering Laws while alleviating the pressure on customers to remember passwords or tokens.
5. Biometric verification can be used from the moment a new account is opened and be used for future functions and transactions.

An onboarding process easy to implement and use

B-FY’s onboarding solution for fintech enables our client’s customers to use their app as an access key in all the online or physical services offered. B-FY’s solution guarantees secure access to any fintech ecosystem for their users.

Gartner’s report cited above reveals that although “third-party biometric methods offer greater control over enrollment and configuration, better omnichannel support, and integration with identity proofing”, they are “far less widely used, because of implementation, cost, UX and privacy challenges, both real and imagined”.

B-FY allows our clients to incorporate biometric identification in the access to their services, whether online or face-to-face. Thus, their customers will use the same tool for online transactions and transactions at branches or ATMs.

A direct and simple UX enables our client’s customers to identify themselves in a simpler and more secure way just by scanning a QR code and identifying themselves on their mobile.

Also, B-FY solution has been designed with standards and in a modular way to simplify integration, both in web systems and embedded systems, with a minimum impact on our client’s roadmap. As for privacy challenges, our identification protocol has been created in accordance with European data privacy directives, taking the utmost care of the user’s privacy and that of the company.

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