Biometric Mobile Payments Set to Exceed $1 Trillion by 2027

The value of biometrically authenticated remote mobile payments will reach an estimated $1.2 trillion globally in five years’ time, up from just $332bn today, according to a new study.

Juniper Research evaluates the transition from traditional security like PINs and passwords, to biometric authentication, in its paper, Mobile Payment Biometrics: Key Opportunities, Regional Analysis & Market Forecasts 2022-2027.

It claims the use of facial and fingerprint recognition via mobiles will lead to an astonishing 365% growth in the value of related payments in the period to 2027.

OEM solutions like Apple Pay are set to be a significant driver of this growth, as will the introduction of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) checks as part of the EU’s Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

Those rules came into force in March this year in the UK following years of delays. In theory, they could add extra friction to the user journey online unless banks and merchants accept more streamlined risk-based authentication processes.

“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,” Juniper explained.

“Therefore, vendors must offer multiple ways to authenticate, as well as developing new techniques to keep biometrics secure.”

Juniper warned of advanced spoofing techniques such as “digital injection” attacks, designed to circumvent facial recognition technology.

It’s anticipated that the volume of biometrically authenticated remote mobile payments will grow by 383% over the next five years, to reach 39.5 billion globally by 2027.

Another boost for the industry could be a recent announcement by Apple, Microsoft and Google to support a new FIDO Alliance and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) authentication standard.

The move will in theory make it easier for websites and apps to deliver end-to-end passwordless authentication via fingerprint and face scan or device PIN.