Britons are developing a taste for biometric authentication, and trust banks more than ever to keep that data safe, according to new survey data from Visa.
The findings are part of a larger, Europe-wide study conducted for Visa by Populus, with roughly 2,000 Brits offering their opinions this past spring. About 64 percent of respondents in the country expressed interest in using biometric authentication for payments, with 88 percent saying they feel most comfortable with the fingerprint modality.
As for who they trust to protect their biometric data, banks came out on top, with 85 percent of respondents expressing trust in the institutions—a 20 percent increase from 2014. Payment networks, meanwhile, came in with 81 percent support, and smartphone companies garnered 64 percent.
The rising trust in banks tracks with the financial services industry’s increasing embrace of biometric authentication. It also could reflect the rising preponderance of biometric authentication, especially in the form of fingerprint scanning on smartphones – which may help to explain why respondents prefer that modality over others. Of course, if mobile iris scanning catches on in the wake of high-profile devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note7, individuals could rapidly warm up to that technology, too.
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September 20, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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