Transaction Trends

In their latest report released today, titled Lost in Transaction: the end of risk?, ETA member and global payments technology company Paysafe Group says that 52 percent of consumers in the United States are worried that the shift to biometric authentication for online payments will “dramatically increase” identity fraud. Over four fifths – 81 percent – of Americans most favor passwords for authenticating payments online, citing concerns over the security of biometric authentication for making payments.

Only a third of Americans believe that biometrics are more secure than other authentication methods. Similarly, a third of Americans felt they did not know enough about biometrics to trust them. Thirty-nine percent of Americans stated that they did not want companies having access to their personal biometric details. Across North America, 29 percent of consumers were concerned their fingerprint could easily be cloned and used to commit fraud.

“Biometrics are a huge opportunity for the payments industry to combat the increasing risk of card not present fraud. However, it’s not surprising that there is reluctance among consumers to use biometrics as a form of payment authentication when passwords and PINs have been the central pillar of financial data security for at least 20 years,” said Daniel Kornitzer, Chief Business Development Officer of Paysafe Group in a press release. “To overcome this, consumer education is imperative and with SCA coming in September, consumers will need to be aware of the benefits to ensure acceptance and adoption.”

Despite consumer unease, biometric transactions continue to grow. According to the report, 46 percent of North American consumers have used biometrics to make a payment, and 56 percent of US consumers agree that biometrics are a much quicker and efficient way of paying for things.

According to Paysafe, the research was completed among 6,197 consumers from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. Respondents came from six different age groups and a variety of different professions. Click here to read more and access the report.