11/16/2016

ATLANTA— In a recently released report titled Biometrics: The Time Has Come, Aite Group provides an overview of biometrics needs, capabilities and existing solutions. Among 25 biometrics providers included in the report, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions is cited not only for its biometrics platform, but for the importance of its multi-layered approach to identity and fraud protection. The study furthermore interviewed executives at 10 large financial institutions to better under their strategic needs and priorities around biometrics.

The study looks at the wide variety of biometric solutions available in the marketplace today, and notes that there is no single solution for every use case. Starting from at the observation that consumers seem to be becoming more comfortable with biometric use—fingerprint and face readers have come into mainstream use with smartphones, as more and more consumers have become accustomed to using a fingerprint or face to unlock their phones and tablets—the report goes on to describe how the technology has evolved to dramatically reduce false rejects and virtually eliminate false acceptances. LexisNexis® Risk Solutions’ Voice Biometrics platform combines voice biometrics with identity proofing, contextual information and identity authentication for a layered approach that combines data, technology and analytics to bind the biometric to the true identity in order to prevent identity fraud.

“Financial institutions need to focus on a holistic, platform approach to support a variety of biometric and other authentication modalities. While there is no silver bullet, organizations that support a number of options optimized for both security and customer experience and preference are more likely to be successful,” says Ben Knieff, senior research analyst, Aite Group and author of the report.

Biometrics offers financial institutions two distinct benefits: improved customer experience and stronger security—balancing reduced risk and reduced customer friction. Especially with mobile interactions, biometric authentication is typically faster and easier than other authentication methods. This is especially true for mobile-based interactions. Additionally, stronger authentication improves security and helps to reduce risk. In particular, biometric authentication can make it easier to prevent fraudulent activity early in an interaction, reducing both fraud-loss dollars and operational costs of managing fraud.

Kimberly Little Sutherland, senior director, Fraud Management, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, comments: “Consumer and institutional trust in biometrics has increased substantially over the past year, but it currently presents a double-edged sword when it comes to authenticating payments. While we are seeing mass interest and adoption, and this is likely to continue to grow, organizations should not plan for biometrics or any single authentication method alone to solve the issue of transaction authorization. A multi-layered approach to identity protection, and by extensions fraud protection, is called for—this is what we are working on and seeking to resolve for financial institutions and consumers alike.” 

Financial institutions face many different constraints when looking to deploy biometrics. There are stakeholders in many departments, including customer service, call center operations, digital channels operations, fraud management, information technology (IT) security, physical security, legal, and compliance.

The Aite report calls out LexisNexis® Risk Solutions as offering “web service interfaces for quick and secure integration and multitenancy, scalability and multisite high availability capabilities. LexisNexis Voice Biometrics offers liveness detection, patented playback detection to identify audio segments that unnaturally match enrollment audio, and fraudster detection using watch lists. The solution updates existing templates with new audio to maintain the voiceprint over time.”

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data, sophisticated analytics platforms and technology solutions to provide insights that help businesses across multiple industries and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit LexisNexis Risk Solutions and RELX.