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O.T. Financial Insights Asia/Pacific Reports on Growing Use of Biometrics in Asian Banks
http://www.idc.com/AP/pressrelease.jsp?containerId=prSG20220906
21 Jun 2006

Lack of Standardization May Prevent Large-Scale Customer Deployment

SINGAPORE and HONG KONG, June 21, 2006 – Leading independent research and advisory firm, Financial Insights, an IDC company, today announced the release of a new report examining the growing use and effectiveness of automated biometric authentication devices by banks in Asia.

Generally viewed as an expensive, high-level security application, biometrics has become more accessible for commercial purposes through technological advances. Estimates by the International Biometric Group see biometric usage growing significantly over the coming years. However, despite increasing usage by Asian banks for internal security, Financial Insights believes it will still be several years before automated biometric authentication devices can be effectively deployed on a customer level.





Figure 1


Abhishek Kumar, market analyst for Financial Insights' Asia/Pacific IT Benchmarking Advisory Service, says, "It is not really an issue of whether banks are ready for biometrics but an issue of whether biometrics is ready for banks. Numerous banks in Asia have already implemented biometrics for internal security purposes, but problems arises when they try and implement customer-level biometric authentication."

Despite being touted as the highest level of security, biometric devices are too diverse with a variety of proprietary elements that make it difficult for them to be interoperable and customer-friendly in the modern banking environment. Kumar concludes, "The lack of standardization between devices, little regulatory guidance, and cost concerns show that the practical implementation of biometric authentication on a customer level is still several years away."

For more information on obtaining this report, Biometrics: Ready for Asia's Banks? (Financial Insights, #FIN201881, June 2006), please contact: [e-mail].

About Financial Insights, an IDC Company

Financial Insights provides independent research, custom consulting, and detailed multiclient studies on the technology issues and challenges facing the financial services industry. Our global research covers topics of strategic importance to corporate and retail banks, insurance carriers, asset management firms, securities and brokerage firms. Our local practices in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Canada add an in-depth regional viewpoint. Financial Insights, an IDC company, is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading IT media, research, and exposition company.

Visit www.financial-insights.com for more information.

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