An user use biometric authentication to open her phone. More Vietnamese consumers are using this method to have their payment. – Photo Courtesy Visa Vietnam

HCM CITY – A strong majority of cardholders in Việt Nam are interested in using biometric authentication such as fingerprints or facial recognition to complete transactions, rather than PIN numbers or passwords and other, a study said.

The study, which was commissioned by Visa and conducted by Fabrizio Ward, LLC was an online survey of credit cardholders in Việt Nam which looked into attitudes towards existing and new methods of payment authentication, with a particular focus on issues of security, convenience, and reliability.

According to the research, 95 per cent of respondents had used fingerprint recognition in the past to make a payment, making it the most popularly used form of biometric authentication.

Across the board, the survey found that biometric payments are seen as being more secure, faster and easier than traditional methods.

Survey respondents clearly ranked biometrics as some of the most secure forms of authentication, with 97 per cent indicating that they felt fingerprint recognition was a secure method, followed by eye scans at 94 per cent, and facial recognition at 92 per cent. These ranked above methods like PIN numbers at 87 per cent, and passwords at 84 per cent.

Some 83 per cent of survey respondents indicated that they had abandoned a purchase online, with the most commonly cited reasons for doing so being that they had forgotten a password (41 per cent), or they’d had troubles logging on to their account (38 per cent).

This could explain why only one in five respondents stated that they use unique passwords for each account. At the same time, 93 per cent said that they felt secure when paying using either a PIN or password.

Đặng Tuyết Dung, Visa Vietnam’s Country Manager, said: “The study shows that there is a clear desire for biometrics in the marketplace, and furthermore, that Vietnamese consumers are very keen adopters of new technologies. These are positive signs for us, as we work with banks in Việt Nam to introduce more individualised and secure methods of identifying cardholders so that we can work towards our goal of eliminating fraud while making the payment process even simpler for consumers.”

When asked for reasons why they may not currently be using biometric authentication, respondents’ leading response was that their bank did not support the technology. However, a large majority indicated they would likely switch away from banks, payment card providers, or mobile services that didn’t offer biometric authentication.  VNS