Others don't see it. The financial industry is slow to warm up to sci-fi style biological identification technology, even halfway now through year 2001. But while privacy battles rage and the sexiness of the technology outstrips its financial logic, those in the know say wider use of biometric identification is likely as the Internet expands the boundaries of commerce that is, if cost and consumer reticence can be tamed. Biometrics allow companies to rely on unique body characteristics fingerprints, voice recognition, eye and facial scans and hand imaging to identify an individual. So welding biometric technology to an existing ATM network would not only be costly, but require banks to sell consumers on its advantages.
Proponents say the stick here is consumer fear of fraud, while the carrot is convenience.
The biggest obstacle, though, is a lack of customer demand and technology that's not ready for prime time. Biometrics has slowly been seeping into everyday finance. Some banks began requiring fingerprints at branches years ago as a security measure for non-account holders cashing checks. Biometrics technology is now usually mentioned in guarding ATM access. The most desired application, though, is one letting a customer tap institutional services from his computer, Lehman Brothers analyst Jeff Kessler says.