A new study commissioned by Visa has found that a strong majority of cardholders in Vietnam are interested in using biometric authentication such as fingerprints or facial recognition to complete transactions, rather than PIN numbers or passwords—with many having already used these technologies to make payments.

Vietnamese consumers are interested in biometric authentication payments
- PHOTO: VISA 

The study, which was conducted by Fabrizio Ward, LLC, was an online survey of 500 adult credit cardholders in Vietnam and examined attitudes toward existing and new methods of payment authentication, with a particular focus on issues of security, convenience and reliability.

According to the research, 95% of respondents had used fingerprint recognition in the past to make a payment—making it the most popular 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 very clearly ranked biometrics as some of the most secure forms of authentication, with 97% indicating that they felt fingerprint recognition was a secure method, followed by eye scans at 94% and facial recognition at 92%. These ranked above methods such as PIN numbers at 87% and passwords at 84%.

Some 83% 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%) or had trouble logging into their accounts (38%). This could explain why only one in five respondents stated that they use unique passwords for each account. At the same time, 93% reported that they felt secure when paying using either a PIN or password.

Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa Vietnam’s country manager, noted in a statement: “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 Vietnam to introduce more individualized and secure methods of identifying cardholders, so that we can work toward 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, the majority indicated they would likely switch away from banks, payment card providers or mobile services that did not offer biometric authentication.