What to Expect at Money20/20 2016

The Money20/20 conference kicks off today in Las Vegas, with digital security and biometric solutions in particular expected to once again be hot topics.

Digital security companies are planning some big showings, of course. STC Group, represented in the US by SpeechPro, will show off its OnePass multimodal authentication system and its VoiceKey voice recognition platform for consumer devices; and Uniken will demonstrate its REL-ID identity platform, which features voice and fingerprint verification. Daon will be back in attendance, too, of course, with that company’s IdentityX mobile biometric authentication platform already having made a big splash in financial services as companies like USAA and Mastercard having adopted it for their own apps.

Speaking of which, the financial services giants like Mastercard and Visa will be keen to demonstrate their explorations of biometric security this week, too. Mastercard’s Ajay Bhalla will participate in a panel discussion—moderated by FindBiometrics president Peter O’Neill—on the topic alongside big names from Wells Fargo, Nok Nok Labs, Safran Identity & Security, and, of course, Daon. Meanwhile, Visa will co-host a discussion on post-password security with BioConnect, with those companies’ biometric technologies expected to be a key component of the talk.

Much of all this activity will feature a common thread with respect to the FIDO Alliance. The consortium’s authentication standards have really caught on across a range of sectors, and are well-suited to many of the biometric solutions that will be showcased during the conference. As such, it’s a 2 Star Sponsor and Exhibitor for this year’s event, and will be showcasing numerous partners’ FIDO-based solutions at what it calls the ‘FIDO Pavilion’ this week. It’s also likely to be an important topic during the above-mentioned panel discussion, particularly since Nok Nok Labs was a co-founder and remains a key ally of the group.

It all points to the virtual consensus across financial services that password-based security no longer cuts it, and the growing agreement that biometric technology is key to the more sophisticated security that is needed. The latter proved to be a more popular topic than anticipated at last year’s Money20/20, and it should prove to be an even bigger hit this year.

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October 24, 2016 – by Alex Perala