HSBC Touts Biometrics for its Fintech Division

British banking giant HSBC announced earlier in the month the growth of biometric technology in its financial technology division.

Biometrics came late to the fintech game, but that didn’t stop its meteoric rise.

Many in the fintech industry have called biometrics one of the most important areas of research for the future of the sector, with KPGM suggesting that over 1 billion people will be using biometric technology by 2020.

HSBC announced that it will be launching and integrating several biometric technologies into its current array of services.

Such technologies include voice recognition for security purposes, in addition to fingerprint authentication for account access.

So far, HSBC will limit the launch to just the UK, its home country, before the summer.

The bank’s First Direct service, which previously was a telephone-only bank, will now offer voice authentication without the use of passwords or phrases, a step which HSBC believes will make the accounts more secure.

It’s likely that HSBC is responding to multiple reports showing the growing demand for extra security, in particular biometric security.

Biometric technology offers entirely unique methods of protection and authentication.

So far, the most advanced forms of biometric security have proven to be far more secure that traditional standards. Additionally, biometrics also provides greater accessibility and convenience to consumers.