Seniors Embracing Biometrics For Mobile Banking

The USAA has found a surprising demographic among early adopters of its biometric authentication for mobile banking: the elderly.

Of the more than 400,000 USAA customers who have opted in to use the face, voice or touch biometrics, the median age is 35 – and of the half that is above that median, 15 percent are seniors over the age of 65, with five users over 90 years of age.

The demographic parsing was disclosed May 11 by Rick Swenson, USAA’s fraud operational excellence and strategic initiatives executive, at a London roundtable hosted by the Center for the Study of Financial Innovation according to American Banker.

At the beginning of the year, USAA began offering biometrics — via face and voice recognition. Within a month after the February launch, more than 200,000 members had signed up for the service.

Fingerprint authorization debuted late last month.  

Swenson implied USAA’s biometrics development was not all that expensive, likening it to the development cost of remote deposit capture technology, wherein customers can now deposit funds after taking pictures of checks with their mobile devices. 

Indeed, it may make sense that the elderly embrace technology that relies on physical features. Keith Gold, a communications consultant who formerly worked with IBM Banking and Financial Services Europe, told American Banker that as hearing, motor skills and short-term memory slip, they might struggle with using a password or PIN, especially on the small screen of a mobile device.

Turning to another key demographic, biometrics authentication can also be attractive for military service members, a segment that USAA focuses on among its 10.7 million members.