While FinTech’s current focus is creating and securing a consumer’s digital identity, nearly 40 percent of all adults living in the world lack a physical identity that’s the digital identity’s starting point. In July’s Digital Identity Tracker™, we speak with industry experts who describe the importance of establishing a comprehensive identity verification solution that leaves no identity behind. Catch that along with the profiles of 90 digital identity players, including six newcomers, in this month’s tracker.
While many consumers worry about protecting their digital financial identities, billions of people around the globe are concerned about not having these identities at all. In fact, 38 percent of adults throughout the world are considered to be unbanked.
Although many FinTech institutions are working to change this, their initiatives also run the risk of monopolizing identity, something Travis Jarae, who has worked in the identity verification field for companies including Citi, Deloitte and now Google, believes would be detrimental.
For the July Digital Identity Tracker™, PYMNTS caught up with Jarae to discuss the future of online verification. (All opinions in the article are his own.)
Here’s a sneak peek:
Hypothetically, Jarae explained, if one major bank were to invest heavily in building a user identity verification infrastructure for its financial services, other banks could potentially tap into its KYC database for vetting both new and potential customers, thereby leaving a user’s identity only as good as the invested bank’s due diligence program.
This is something Jarae is working on preventing through his nonprofit called The Identity Institute, which is slated to launch in 2017.
“The idea for The Identity Institute is to solve the issue of financial inclusion with identity related solutions. We also want to make sure identity is democratized, and that it’s not owned by one institution or many institutions – that your identity is owned by you,” Jarae said.
Transitioning from passwords to biometrics
Passwords are about to become solutions of the past. A study from TeleSign reported that 72 percent of people in the digital security industry expect traditional username/password logins to be eradicated by 2025.
Their predicted replacement? Biometric technology. Throughout the Digital Identity space, FinTech players are zeroing in on this cutting-edge method of authentication.
A study from Lux Research indicated that mobile payments will need to incorporate biometric authentication features in the next few years in order to stay popular with users. During the 2016 TechSec Solutions conference, iris scanning was deemed the top biometric solution by a panel of industry experts. Microsoft and Yahoo teamed up on a biometric web login system called “on-demand biometrics” that would offer consumers a mobile phone-powered biometric verification process.
To download the August edition of the Digital Identity Tracker™, powered by Socure, click the button below.
About the Tracker:
The PYMNTS.com Digital Identity Tracker™, powered by Socure, is a forum for framing and addressing key issues and trends facing the entities charged with efficiently and securely identifying and granting permission to individuals to access, purchase, transact or otherwise confirm their identity.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
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