Acuity report predicts mobile biometrics growth to disrupt the global payments market

Acuity Market Intelligence has released “The Global Biometrics and Mobility Report: The Convergence of Commerce and Privacy“, which forecasts that the mobile biometrics market will generate $34.6 billion in annual revenue in 2020.

The report finds that this significant growth in the mobile biometrics market will disrupt the global payment market by providing an alternative method of securing and processing mobile transactions.

The $34.6 billion in projected annual revenue will include 4.8 billion biometrically-enabled smart mobile devices generating $6.2 billion in biometric sensor revenue, 5.4 billion biometric app downloads generating $21.7 billion in annual revenues from direct purchase and software development fees, and 807 billion biometrically secured payment and non-payment transactions generating $6.7 billion in authentication fees.

The Acuity report segments the mobile biometrics into three major sectors, including biometric sensors embedded in smart mobile devices; biometric apps offered by biometric vendors, or mobile service providers; and biometric authentication for payment and non-payment transactions provided via secure cloud-based services linked to smart device biometric apps.

The report also finds that biometrics will reduce both the risk and cost of payment processing as they are expected to be used to authenticate nearly 65% of all mCommerce transactions in 2020, which represents 126 billion biometric payment transactions generating more than $1.1 trillion in consumer mCommerce purchase value.

“Billions of payments will be secured by a new class of payment processors that manage risk through biometric identity services as consumers are authenticated and transactions authorized with much lower risk than traditional payments,” said Maxine Most, Acuity Market Intelligence principal and lead analyst.

“Biometric-based real-time risk assessment will also transform payment processing allowing consumers to withdraw funds directly from consumer bank and mobile money accounts via their mobile devices while enabling merchants to issue direct consumer credit on demand. This has the potential to totally disintermediate traditional payment methods, such as credit and debit cards, out of the payment marketplace.”

Additionally, Acuity forecasts that the total biometric transaction volume, including both payment and non-payment transactions, will surpass 800 million annually by 2020.

Thirty-five percent of these transactions will be authenticated via biometrics embedded in mobile devices and 65 percent will be authenticated via biometric apps downloaded by consumers.

The report includes more than 250 charts and tables that provide detailed unit and revenue forecasts for biometric smart devices, biometric apps, and biometrically authenticated transactions for 2014 to 2020 globally and by region, by device type, and for payment and non-payment transactions.

Article Topics

Acuity  |  banking  |  biometric payment system  |  biometric sensors  |  biometrics  |  consumer devices  |  market report  |  mobile app