Biometric technology is more prominent than ever at this year’s Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas. With big names like MasterCard showing off their emerging technologies alongside specialist developers like EyeVerify, it’s clear that fintech is pushing financial services players away from the traditional password and toward biometric solutions.

MasterCard had a couple of major innovations to show off. One was its Selfie Pay system, which the company is piloting with First Tech Federal Credit Union. It’s a mobile app that uses biometrics including facial recognition, voice recognition, and fingerprint scanning to authenticate digital transactions; MasterCard says it hopes to have the system available in the US market by the middle of next year. The company was also demonstrating its experiments with the Nymi Band, a biometric wristband that monitors the wearer’s heartbeat for continuous, passive authentication.

Meanwhile, EyeVerify has been wowing conference visitors with its mobile eye biometrics technology. The company’s software uses a smartphone’s built-in camera to scan a user’s eye veins, using their unique pattern as a biometric identifier. EyeVerify has already signed licensing deals with Wells Fargo and RSA, and there could be many more to follow after Money20/20.

Speaking to CNBC, FindBiometrics president and Money20/20 panel moderator Peter O’Neill summed up the situation, asserting, “The industry is booming and fintech is right in the heart of things.” O’Neill explained that whereas at last year’s biometrics panel “there were 300 in the room, this year there were 600 – it was packed,” adding, “that gives you an indication of what’s happening to our industry.”

Source: CNBC

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October 29, 2015 – by  Alex Perala