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Get ready for biometric payments
Alternative payment link
Another key metric that suggests biometric payments
are on the rise is alternative payment usage. "The rise of
alternative payments can help bring biometric payments
further into the mainstream," said Joe Kleinwaechter, Vice
President, Innovation and Design at Worldpay, quoting
key findings from the Worldpay's 2016 Global Payment
Report. "Consider that mobile wallets are expected to
eclipse plastic as the most popular payment method by
2019."
T echTarget.com defines biometrics in the pay- Kleinwaechter also believes the barriers to biometric
ments context as "a point-of-sale technology payment adoption fall into two categories: the limited
that uses biometric authentication to identify number of POS devices equipped to accept such payments
the user and authorize the deduction of funds and the hesitancy of consumers to convert from payment
from a bank account." options they've grown accustomed to. "The more
opportunities consumers have to use this technology and
Biometric payments today are typically generated see others using it, the more likely they will be to trust this
through a mobile or wearable device and use two-factor form of authentication and use it more moving forward,"
authentication methods, such as personal identification he said.
numbers (PINs) and fingerprints, to qualify transactions.
Most such devices are also equipped with contactless Merchant acceptance lagging
payment technology, which is designed to safely pass
data from one device to another without the friction of Now that embedded wallets and contactless payment
entering numbers, swiping mag-stripe cards or inserting capabilities are being built into biometric wearables,
(sometimes called dipping) smart cards. consumer curiosity for biometric payments is likely to turn
into market demand. However, the average merchant's
Consumer adoption of biometric payment methods has inability to accept payments made from biometric devices
been relatively slow. This is particularly true in the United is a significant barrier. Even if today's consumers were
States and other countries where card-based payments are ready to adopt biometric payments more readily, they
still preferred. However, adoption of devices that employ would still have to carry credit and debit cards, since so
biometrics is on the rise, and experts are predicting the few merchants are ready to accept these payments.
widespread adoption of biometric payments will soon
follow. According to Kleinwaechter, the price of biometric devices
is more of a burden for merchants than consumers.
So many biometric advancements are afoot today that "Consider the sluggish start to EMV adoption as a
multiple technologies are converging. A recent ABI comparison," he stated. Nevertheless, Juniper Research Ltd.
Research Inc. report, Biometrics Applications in the Financial recently predicted 770 million biometric authentication
and Banking Sectors, analyzed the increasing use of apps will be downloaded annually by the year 2019. And
biometrics in banking and payments and discussed the as the Internet of Things, biometrics and wearable markets
latest pairings between startup biometrics firms and top- mature, making these transactions convenient and
tier payment card players. According to the report, these friendly for consumers, contactless payment acceptance is
partnerships are being formed to boost mobile biometrics predicted to gravitate into the mainstream across all retail
in payments and banking. channels.
"This market shift is occurring faster than initially "Retailers need to demonstrate the value that biometric
anticipated, with global revenues for biometric banking authentication adds to the shopping experience beyond
technology expected to top $4 billion by 2021," Dimitrios speed," Kleinwaechter noted. For example, he feels that
Pavlakis, an Industry Analyst at ABI Research told news since biometric authentication eliminates the need to
portal Planet Biometrics. remember the various PINs that are associated with most
traditional payment methods, the retail community can
help speed adoption by offering biometric authentication
at checkout as a convenience. "By using unique features
that cannot be lost, forgotten or changed, biometric
sensors could make forgetting passwords a thing of the
past," he said.
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