A method of identifying a biometric record of an individual in a database, the database comprising a plurality of biometric records, the method comprising: during a training phase: applying by a processing device a matching operation to determine scores for a similarity between at least one training biometric sample of each of a plurality of training records and at least one probe sample; based on said scores, determining by said processing device a metadata threshold value (M TH) by evaluating a correlation between said scores and at least one parameter value of each training record in conjunction with the knowledge of whether or not each of said scores should indicate a match, wherein said at least one parameter value is a metadata parameter value; and determining a score threshold value (S TH) based on said scores in conjunction with the knowledge of whether or not each of said scores should indicate a match; and during an identification phase: determining a metadata parameter value for each biometric record by extracting said metadata parameter value from at least one reference biometric sample of each of the biometric records of said database and selecting a subset of said biometric records by comparing each of said metadata parameter values with said metadata threshold value (M TH); applying a prefilter operation comprising determining a score for a similarity between an input biometric sample and at least one reference biometric sample of each of the selected biometric records of said database and comparing said score with the score threshold value (S TH) in order to select or eliminate each biometric record of the database; and applying a matching operation to the selected records to determine whether the input biometric sample matches a reference biometric sample of one of said selected records, wherein the metadata parameter value is a quality indication of said sample. applying by a processing device a matching operation to determine scores for a similarity between at least one training biometric sample of each of a plurality of training records and at least one probe sample; based on said scores, determining by said processing device a metadata threshold value (M TH) by evaluating a correlation between said scores and at least one parameter value of each training record in conjunction with the knowledge of whether or not each of said scores should indicate a match, wherein said at least one parameter value is a metadata parameter value; and determining a score threshold value (S TH) based on said scores in conjunction with the knowledge of whether or not each of said scores should indicate a match; and during an identification phase: determining a metadata parameter value for each biometric record by extracting said metadata parameter value from at least one reference biometric sample of each of the biometric records of said database and selecting a subset of said biometric records by comparing each of said metadata parameter values with said metadata threshold value (M TH); applying a prefilter operation comprising determining a score for a similarity between an input biometric sample and at least one reference biometric sample of each of the selected biometric records of said database and comparing said score with the score threshold value (S TH) in order to select or eliminate each biometric record of the database; and applying a matching operation to the selected records to determine whether the input biometric sample matches a reference biometric sample of one of said selected records, wherein the metadata parameter value is a quality indication of said sample. determining a metadata parameter value for each biometric record by extracting said metadata parameter value from at least one reference biometric sample of each of the biometric records of said database and selecting a subset of said biometric records by comparing each of said metadata parameter values with said metadata threshold value (M TH); applying a prefilter operation comprising determining a score for a similarity between an input biometric sample and at least one reference biometric sample of each of the selected biometric records of said database and comparing said score with the score threshold value (S TH) in order to select or eliminate each biometric record of the database; and applying a matching operation to the selected records to determine whether the input biometric sample matches a reference biometric sample of one of said selected records, wherein the metadata parameter value is a quality indication of said sample.