Consumers lean towards modern payment methods

The study, which was commissioned by Visa and conducted by Fabrizio Ward LLC, was an online survey of credit cardholders in Vietnam which looked into attitudes towards existing and new methods of payment authentication, with a particular focus on issues of security, convenience, and reliability.

According to the research, 95 per cent of respondents had used fingerprint recognition in the past to make a payment, making it the most popularly used 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.

Almost all of those surveyed feel fingerprinting is secure enough

Indeed, survey respondents ranked biometrics as some of the most secure forms of authentication, with 97 per cent indicating that they felt fingerprint recognition was a secure method, followed by eye scans at 94 per cent, and facial recognition at 92 per cent. These methods ranked above others like PIN at 87 per cent and passwords at 84 per cent.

A whopping 83 per cent of the survey respondents indicated that they had abandoned an ongoing online purchase, most commonly because they had forgotten their password (41 per cent), or they had troubles logging on to their account (38 per cent). This could explain why only one in five respondents stated that they use unique passwords for each account. At the same time, 93 per cent said that they felt secure when paying using either a PIN or password.

Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa Vietnam’s country manager said, “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 individualised and secure methods of identifying cardholders, so that we can work towards 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 reply was that their bank did not support the technology. Moreover, the majority indicated they would likely move away from their banks, payment card providers, or mobile services if they did not offer biometric authentication methods.