Banks embrace biometrics to boost security, convenience
TORONTO — In the not-toodistant future, your bank will be able to prevent fraud by learning how you type, your car will unlock when it senses the electrical activity of your heart and the security system at your office will recognize your facial features.
That’s according to experts in the field of biometrics, which identifies a person by measuring unique characteristics such as their fingerprints, their retinas or their voice.
But these types of distinctive identification authentication processes offer more than the promise of a higher degree of security than traditional passwords.
Biometrics will also free consumers from the need to memorize a myriad of characters — a convenience that will appeal to anyone who needs to access a secure computer or network regularly.
“People are having to jump through more and more hoops to create a secure authentication,” says Karl Martin, founder of Nymi, a Toronto startup that created a wristband that can identify its wearer based on their electrocardiogram, or the electrical activity of their heart.
“How many times a day do you have to prove who you are, whether it be through a password or a biometric or other means?”
Banks — and the financial services industry, more broadly — have been among the quickest adopters of biometrics technology, given their strong need for security and identity verification, says Bianca Lopes, director of strategy at BioConnect.
“They’re inherently wired and regulated to protect the customer with things like knowyour-client and anti-moneylaundering rules,” says Lopes, whose company helps businesses integrate biometrics technologies across various channels.
Royal Bank is currently testing technologies such as iris
scanning, face recognition, speech recognition and fingerprint scans — and is expecting to roll out the features to customers in 2017.
Martin says Nymi has completed successful pilot projects alongside RBC and TD Bank to test out how its wristband can be used to verify purchases, while MasterCard recently launched a service that allows users to verify their identities with their smartphones by taking a selfie or using a fingerprint scanner.
Notably, it’s the popularity of the fingerprint scanner on Apple iPhones that’s made consumers more comfortable and familiar with biometrics, says Dennis Gamiello, vicepresident of identity solutions at MasterCard.
“Fortunately, Apple and some of the other digital players that have introduced (biometric) capabilities are in some ways helping train the consumers for us.”
Biometrics can also identify users based on how they behave — for instance, their typing patterns or the way that they swipe across the screen on a mobile device.
“The way that you actually interact with the phone, the way that you swipe the phone ... it’s fairly unique to you,” explains Eddy Ortiz, RBC’s vice-president of innovation and solution acceleration.