Confirming a customer's identity is one of the most delicate steps when providing a financial service, such as opening a bank account or authorizing a loan. Companies main concerns are about security in order to prevent fraud. The impact for the customer is on bureaucracy, which requires time and patience to complete a process, including having to go to an office and sign various documents.

What if there was technology that would help these two fronts, making life easier for citizens and financial institutions? This technology is already available and gaining more space due to the popularization of smarphones and the gathering of large databases, favoring the consolidation of a wide digital business ecosystem. We are talking about biometrics.

Who has never used the fingerprint to unlock the phone or to buy something through an application? Who has never used or heard of facial recognition on mobile devices for identity validation (Brazil's digital driver license is an excellent example - portuguese only)?

How it works?

Biometrics uses people's physical characteristics such as fingerprint, eye shape, and mouth contour to recognize someone and distinguish them from others. Because it is something personal related to birth traits, biometrics has become one of the safest modes for authenticating business transactions.

Facial recognition and fingerprint are the most common and least costly examples today. These are modalities present in most of the mobile devices launched since 2017. Because of this, they are also the most used by Brazilians, whether for security in everyday use, for shopping or accessing more complex financial services such as obtaining credit.

Face recognition works from the analysis of an image, when several points are identified on the face. The information is compared to the images recorded in a database. Confirmation or denial of identity is almost instantaneous.

Fingerprint validation is a method that binds speed to high reliability. An optical reader captures the finger image and compares it to a database of previously recorded fingerprints. The system analyzes details such as the bifurcations of the grooves, arcs and contours present in the fingers.