Last week, the largest Fintech event in Europe, Money20/20, was held in Amsterdam, with more than 5000 visitors and 1500 companies attending. Precise Biometrics was on site to discuss biometric payment cards and to catch up on the latest developments in the financial industry.
One of the major topics at Money20/20 was identity & authentication, addressing how to minimize risk from data breaches and protecting digital identity. The payment market is traditionally conservative, but with the increased usage of alternative payment methods and regulations like GDPR and PSD2, interest in innovative payment solutions, such as digital wallets, wearables and mobile payments, is increasing.
Biometrics are used in many of the new payment solutions to improve user convenience and security. Biometric payment cards were once again in the spotlight as they offer a more user-friendly and secure alternative to pin code-based payment cards. There were a host of payment and solution providers that demonstrated biometric payment cards at the event. In a keynote address, Mastercard’s Chief Security Solutions Officer, Ajay Bhalla, said that biometrics are going to completely change the way consumers transact in payments.
In the run up to Money 20/20, Precise Biometrics introduced its software solution for biometric payment cards, Precise BioMatch Card, which carries out fingerprint matching inside the card’s Secure Element (SE), while extraction is performed on a separate processor in the card. This solution ensures a high level of security, while maintaining user convenience. Read more about this solution and biometric payment cards in our white paper.
Interest in biometrics among users is high, as demonstrated by a survey conducted by Zwipe, which found that 50 percent of residents in the Netherlands between the ages of 18 and 65 believe that paying with biometrics will be the future of banking.
As expected, when the payment ecosystem meets innovative technology, there are many new innovations to discuss. One area that caught our attention was solutions for banks to onboard new customers by using different biometric modalities, without the need to remember passwords or PINs. Other interesting topics centered on the use of artificial intelligence for identification and authentication of Internet-of-Things devices without any human interaction. The use of blockchains to secure digital identity and authentication was another interesting topic.
In conclusion, biometrics are becoming a key technology for the financial industry to enable innovative solutions and improved products and services. For more insights from the event, listen to an audio interview with our Senior Sales Director, Fredrik Sjöholm, who met with FindBiometrics to discuss his impressions of Money 20/20.