The value of biometrically authenticated remote mobile payments is forecast to top $1.2trillion globally by 2027; rising from the $332billion recorded in 2022.
These transactions use biometrics, typically facial and fingerprint recognition, to authenticate remote mobile payments.
This is according to a newly-released study from Juniper Research, which indicated that the introduction of strong customer authentication (SCA) and other regulatory changes had pushed growth to surpass 365 per cent whilst furthering wider adoption of the technology.
The research, entitled ‘Mobile Payment Biometrics: Key Opportunities, Regional Analysis & Market Forecasts 2022-2027‘, identified original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Pay solutions as one of the major drivers of mobile payment biometrics adoption.
The report urged OEM-Pay vendors to use their influence over smartphone design to enhance built-in biometric systems within devices and ensure that security is maintained as new threats emerge.
SCA’s role in market growth
The SCA requirement of the second payment services directive (PSD2) has pushed financial institutions to implement biometric authentication.
To meet this requirement, financial institutions have capitalised on smartphone biometric authentication capabilities; accelerating the technology’s adoption.
The research found that the volume of biometrically authenticated remote mobile payments will grow by 383 per cent over the course of the next five years, reaching 39.5 billion globally by 2027.
To maintain trust and reduce fraud, financial institutions are implementing step-up authentication, where certain transactions are escalated for biometric approval based on risk scoring. Therefore, vendors must offer multiple ways to authenticate, as well as developing new techniques to keep biometrics secure.
Facial recognition to boost mobile biometrics adoption in payments
The report found that facial recognition is facilitating the adoption of biometric mobile payments, with OEM-Pay solutions leveraging the near-ubiquity of facial recognition capabilities to provide checkout experiences for customers.
With the use of facial recognition increasing, the technology has become a target for malicious actors using advanced spoofing techniques, such as digital injection attacks.
In response, mobile authentication vendors must prioritise the design and implementation of enhanced liveness detection, and anti-spoofing techniques, to combat the ever-evolving role of fraudulent players and ensure that security is not compromised.
