16 April 2015
Making Payments easy is a very hard thing to do (see post).. the same can be said of authentication. Apple has created a new standard for biometrics/identity and authentication with TouchID.. and platform security (with iPhone 6). Problem for entities needing to authorize using Touch ID (ex Banks) is that Apple doesn’t pass the raw biometrics.. its actually against the law in Europe (which makes sense as fingers are rather hard to re-issue).
How can banks leverage Touch ID for authentication/authorization of their bank app? There are 3 parts to the problem:
- integration with Touch ID (Trust of TouchID),
- Trust of the Phone (phone ID)
- Authorization for the Service.
I can’t believe I’m going to write this next part.. it breaks most of my rules.. but a Bank Consortium has actually innovated!! Early Warning’s purchase of Authentify may be the best bank innovation of the last 10 years. With Authentify, banks now have a consistent way to implement biometrics, manage trust, and authorization across iOS, Android and other platforms. See press release below.
http://www.earlywarning.com/news/press-releases/2015/early-warning-to-acquire-authentify.html
Early Warning’s other components include Payfone (jointly owned by US Banks, US MNOs and Amex), and the US banking industry’s top secret fraud fighting utility (which has migrated from ACH, Checks, Debit into Credit and lending) .
Early Warning has completely remade itself over the last 5 years.. becoming a the US Banking Industry’s best consortium for innovation and value creation. Congrats to CEO Paul Finch and his fabulous product, M&A and Tech team.. and to all of his bank members for making this possible.
Over the last five years, India has rapidly built a iris & fingerprint biometric database of its population, issuing Aadhaar cards. Over 800 million registered. Now to reach out to its large illiterate & unbanked population, on Prime Minister directive, it has issued bank cards under Jan Dhan Yogana (JDY) which can be used at bank counters and ATMs. All government social benefits will be paid using these registrations.
Innovative methods of authentication of the mobile user – particularly using voice – can revolutionize banking in India. Early Warning/Authentify has to work into the above opportunity ASAP.
Hi Tom,
India now has the world’s second largest mobile user base with a population rapidly moving on to smartphones. Mobile Internet access is the norm.
One of the major challenges for Indian banking which is aiming to promote mobile banking in a big way is the first time on-boarding process of users. Know anyone, who can address this problem?
Rgds
Lalit Chandak