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As banks ramp up to protect their good name and customers from hackers and the like, the industry is moving towards making authentication methods as unique as possible.

Quickly moving forward in the area of biometrics in the areas of voice, Iris recognition, and fingerprints, they are striving to make recognition so secure that there is no way for anyone (human or computer) to violate the privacy of any user accounts. This applies to both desktop and mobile banking and the brand protection industry should take notice.

Let’s face it. The Billions of people in this world are very much alike, but it is their uniqueness that the banking industry is well..Banking on to protect their privacy. At the core these new privacy methods include such things as eye, heart rate, and even the way people hold their phone. These are highly unique attributes, and this is paving the way for a brave new biometric world.

Developers and App Makers are flooded with terabytes upon terabytes of biometric-centric data and are leaving no stone unturned to understand this fast growing area. Technologies such as TouchID from Apple and heart rate recognition technology from Nymi are just a few of the groundbreaking technologies out there and more are jumping on the biometric bandwagon. Authenticating users via this groundbreaking technology presents tech companies with huge opportunities as well as challenges for institutions dealing in the financial sphere. Banks see no other choice but to thrust forward as technology breaks new ground with each passing day in this area.

Friction – 2 Sides of the Same Coin

App makers are flooded in a deluge of biometric data and are moving forward at breakneck speed to understand the world of biometrics. Apple TouchID and heart-rate technology from Nymi are just two of the leaders and the improvements in user authentication are huge opportunities (not without challenges) for banks and other institutions in the financial world leave them without a choice. They must embrace this technology or be left in the dust.

Users are already getting comfortable with TouchID, and there are other options available in the realm of security, of course as with everything else in technology, each has benefits and drawbacks.

The element that is most paramount in Biometrics is design. One of the things that is key to get users to adopt this new technology, whether it is voice, heart rate or facial recognition is being able to train users on how to use it properly without any hassles.

Making it Frictionless

Designers of products have to be super focused on making the user experience as seamless as possible. Every extraneous step or field to fill out that a user has to face while navigating a product is a potential friction point, and will just frustrate the user and lead to the user bouncing. Financial institutions, however will gain respect in using such stringent authentication measures, as it will not be seen as an extra step, but users will increase loyalty with regards to the institution holding the user information as sacred.

Sometimes, reducing friction can be a roadblock to a user giving respect to an institution. In other scenarios, such as the case with ordering on Amazon, reducing friction is essential. One click ordering has been monumental to Amazon’s success, so when it comes to increasing conversions, especially monetary conversions, frictionless is key to success.

Brands need to take a look at the financial industry, and they indeed already are with regards how to authenticate the products that people buy online. With the anti-counterfeiting strategies brands are implementing across the board by utilizing monitoring, the courts and law enforcement to name a few, they need to start looking into authenticating their products. Brand protection involves many safeguards and I feel that without product authentication, a brand protection strategy will never be complete without it in the course of any anti counterfeiting strategy.