A Millennial’s Mindset: Money and Biometrics

I am the future of banking. I am a millennial. I was born in 1997 – and over the next few years, customers like me will decide whether or not banks are the right places to go to meet our money needs. Our whole financial system is undergoing a huge change. It’s not just the arrival of mobile banking. Millennial customers, like me, will question every aspect of banking. Today, I still have to carry credit / debit cards in my pocket. As a result, I must remember a bunch of PINs. To log on to my online banking account, I have to remember usernames, passwords and then wait for authentication codes to arrive.

Frankly, I’m lazy and I just don’t want to keep user names, passwords, PINs in my mind. If it’s possible, I will avoid all that. None of this process was designed around me. I’m part of a generation, which wants everything to flow together. We have grown up with smartphones in our hands. Obviously, I want to know my data is in safe. I just take it for granted that it will be. Technology should be clever enough to protect me without a complicated process.

The best thing for me would be a fast, easy and secure process, designed around me. Why can’t I use my biometric data to have a joined up experience? Without removing body parts, it is  hard to steal from you. Biometrics would enable me to identify myself immediately. Just imagine that in the morning, you pick up your smartwatch, identify yourself with your phone’s fingerprint scanner, camera – or even vein imaging or heart beat signature. Thereafter, everywhere you go, your watch can broadcast your identity, whenever it is needed.

So for example, as I walk to an ATM, I tell my watch how much cash I want. I arrive at the ATM and iBeacon technology reads the authentication that is already being given by my smartwatch. My money is provided without me needing to do anything at all. When I’m surfing on the web, and I find something I want to buy, I want to be able to select it and my watch authenticates me immediately. I have a default account and boom – there you go, I’ve bought my item. Alternatively, when I go to the local shop, I just touch my watch / phone to a terminal and I have paid... Oh, you mean this last one exists today? So perhaps our world is going that way already?

Tech firms are pushing banks towards this imaginary world right now. Biometric authentication is reaching our daily lives, with the smartphones and smartwatches. However, instead of speculating on the future, probably it’s a better idea to ask your children.