- In a survey published on Dec. 14, (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171214005526/en/Visa-Survey-Reveals-Consumers-Ready-Goodbye-Passwords), Visa found that consumers vastly preferred biometric technology to other forms of security for payments and money transfers.
Based on a survey of 1,000 consumers, Visa found that biometric authentications were the method of choice for payments security for 86 per cent of respondents.
Further, more than 65% of those surveyed felt that they understood how biometric security for payments worked, and that they felt comfortable with it.
Fifty percent of the survey respondents said that the chief benefit of using biometrics is eliminating the need to remember multiple passwords or pins. Passwords and pins have, of course, been the target of hackers as well, as Fewer than a third of consumers use unique passwords for each of their accounts.
Consumers find that biometrics are easier to use, the survey showed. About 61 per cent of them found biometrics faster than using passwords. And a majority among them think that biometric authentication is more secure than that obtained by passwords, pins, or two-factor authentication using cellphones.
Thirty-five percent of survey respondents say they use fingerprint recognition technology on a regular basis. About 32 percent of survey respondents said they use voice recognition, with only 9 percent using it regularly.
There is, however, some concern among consumers about using biometric technology. Forty-nine per cent are concerned both about the risk of a security breach of sensitive biometric information and that biometric authentication won’t work well or will take multiple tries.
“For financial institutions, the time has never been better to integrate biometric technology into banking apps and payments experiences for customers,” said Visa spokesperson Mark Nelsen. “Visa is investing in the best ways to add these emerging technologies to our portfolio of products and services. Advances in mobile device features are increasing the accuracy and speed of biometrics, such that they can be used for financial transactions. At the same time, consumers are widely familiar and comfortable with using biometrics for more than just unlocking their phones.”
