Is Palm Authentication The Next Big Banking Trend?

Fiserv is looking to transform the in-person banking experience into one that is both faster and more secure with the scan of a palm.

The financial services technology solutions provider announced on Wednesday (June 15) the availability of Verifast: Palm Authentication, a biometric authentication that financial institutions can enable to help mitigate fraud, decrease transaction times and enhance branch service delivery.

Fiserv said that biometric palm authentication differs from traditional authentication, which can be manual and inefficient, by offering consumers the ability to “quickly, securely and accurately” be identified with an infrared sensing device that reads a person’s unique palm vein pattern.

Karl Guynn, director of products for Gesa Credit Union, which recently piloted Verifast: Palm Authentication in three of its branches, said:

“We benchmarked our traditional process and found that it takes about 15 seconds for a member to authenticate themselves at a teller station. Palm vein authentication takes about one second, so we’ve shaved 14 seconds off each transaction. Palm vein authentication speeds up the transaction so members can be in and out of the branch and on with their lives. It’s more secure, and our members and our tellers love it.”

Research from Raddon Financial Group found that about 83 percent of consumers see palm authentication as somewhat to extremely valuable for banking transactions. Nearly 97 percent of the beta testers of the service also reported in the survey that they are likely to use the technology again in the bank branch environment.

“Security is a big deal to our members,” Guynn added. “Offering a biometric authentication capability like Verifast: Palm Authentication demonstrates to our members that it is a big deal to us, too.”