Demands for quick and efficient mobile banking solutions, as well as the threat of fraud and cybercrime, are driving the adoption of biometric technology solutions, says digital identity company iiDentifii director Lance Fanaroff.

Digital banking fraud in South Africa across all platforms in 2018 resulted in more than R262-million in losses, with the number of incidents having grown by 75%.

“While the use of biometrics is often limited to governments and high-security environments, rapid advances in the technology and increasing smartphone penetration are making biometric solutions more attractive and accessible for banks looking to digitalise their processes.

By harnessing the sophisticated cameras, sensors and rich applications that smartphones now offer, banks can develop new solutions that meet customer demands for mobile, quick and engaging banking capabilities,” he emphasises.

Advanced biometric digital-authentication platforms enable customers to open accounts and transact without having to go into a branch and submit paperwork. This type of capability will arguably become more important as banks compete to win market share among demanding, digitally savvy young customers, he adds.

“It is critical that banks explore newer and more advanced biometric authentication solutions that have more sophisticated liveness detection capabilities. For example, there are new solutions that leverage algorithms and three-dimensional image detection – thereby achieving accurate proof of liveness with a facial recognition system that is multiple times more difficult to spoof.”

It is crucial that banks and organisations manage the implementation of biometric systems correctly to ensure that the solution is safe and robust, and allow for a smooth end-user experience.

“When harnessing biometric on-boarding solutions, in particular, it is critical that the customer experience is as seamless and frictionless as possible, supporting the broader move to efficient, digitalised, branchless banking,” he adds.

Further, banks must place strong emphasis on the process flow, which requires skilled managers to guide the integration of new biometric solutions within existing infrastructure.

Similarly, banks have to ensure adherence to governance, administration and red tape in any roll-out, which also requires stakeholder engagement to secure support for the integration process.

“As customer databases become more important and serve as competitive differentiators, banks should explore blockchain technology as a way of securing highly sensitive biometric data. Biometric databases will need to be impenetrable – and blockchain technology can, arguably, fulfil this requirement while supporting ongoing innovation in banking.”

Banks are competing to win new digital-native clients and need to effectively balance the need for mobility and convenience with robust security and sophisticated fraud prevention. Biometric authentication technology is proving to be one of the most reliable ways of achieving this balance, and will potentially become even more integral to banking security in the years to come, concludes Fanaroff.