What secure digital banking needs is your face or thumbprint

BIOMETRIC technology is gaining traction in the financial services industry around the world - the market will reportedly be worth a staggering US$30 billion by 2021. Not only that, biometrics has been widely considered as the most convenient form of authentication available today. It is poised to replace the traditional method of passwords or memorable questions, which have been undermined by ongoing data breaches and hacking scandals.

The news is unsurprising given the well-publicised difficulties consumers have in remembering ever more complex passwords for the range of online services they subscribe to, and the enthusiasm with which they have greeted the first mainstream applications of biometric technology. Ever since the iPhone 5S introduced its fingerprint reader back in 2013, consumers' appetite for biometric security options soared, with global shipments of smartphones sporting fingerprint sensors expected to reach over one billion units by 2018. Crucially, the technology hasn't just been used to unlock devices, but also to authorise mobile payments - whether in an online app store or a real physical retailer - meaning that many consumers now associate fingerprints with simple, fast, secure transactions.

Biometrics' popularity is not only ascribed to its convenience, but also to its high level of security. While passwords can be easy to guess with the help of software, it is relatively challenging to fake a person's face, ears, gait, or how he/she holds a pen. This translates to extreme difficulty for strangers or fraudsters to access a smart phone using fake biometric information.