A US Marine taking a retinal scan of a man in Fallujah, Iraq in 2006. This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Fintech Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here .
Banks are continually taking steps to enhance security, and Wells Fargo just took a big leap forward.
Wells Fargo and Canadian branchless bank Tangerine have announced that they will start using a new biometric technology called eyeprint authentication from tech startup EyeVerify .
The technology creates a digital map of a person’s eye through a smartphone camera by analyzing unique details such as blood vessels. A user then logs in by holding the camera up to his or her eye, and the software matches their eye to the stored blueprint.
This greatly enhances security for the consumer because only that person could log into the account. It would also be more convenient because it would eliminate the need for the user to remember and enter complex passwords.
Wells Fargo intends to integrate the technology shortly for commercial customers to authenticate their mobile bank accounts, while Tangerine has already included it in the newest iteration of its iOS app that released this week.
Wells Fargo participated in EyeVerify’s $6 million funding round in 2014 and helped mentor the startup as part of its accelerator program, reports American Banker .
The implementation of this retinal scan technology, as well the growing adoption of biometric technology to improve user security, indicates that we’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs.No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution.The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some […]
