Insight from Juniper Research shows that there has been a significant surge in digital identity verification checks this year. According to their research, there is an expected 70 billion verification checks to be made next year, growing 16% from the previous year’s figure of 61bn. 

This trend comes on the heels of a digital realm which is adopting more robust biometric verification methods as a defence against the two most common attack methods: account takeover and card-not-present fraud. 

Account takeover fraud happens when a threat actor gains access to someone’s account to exploit it, accounting for over one in ten (13%) of UK fraud cases according to research from LexisNexis.

Card-not-present represents the biggest proportion of card fraud in the UK, according to UK Finance’s 2023 annual fraud report. This type of fraud accounted for 81% of all card fraud cases and last year alone, led to an estimated £395.7 million in losses for victims in the UK. 

Researchers from Juniper say new biometric verification techniques such as liveness checks are formidable at preventing these kinds of attacks. The researchers forecast that the banking sector will experience the largest volume of verification checks next year at roughly 37bn, or 53% of the global identity verification market size. 

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This being the case, researchers at Juniper are emphasizing the importance of banking systems striking partnerships with verification vendors. Failure to do so, according to them, could result in losing business to competitors who are better connected to the digital verification landscape. 

One such technology and biometric verification method that is elevating user experience is facial recognition.

Commenting on the significance of this technology, Michael Greenwood said: “The real strength of facial recognition is the additional checks that can be added. Layering age estimation on top of facial recognition allows verification to be tailored to the client’s needs. Verification systems that can perform multiple checks in one step offer a significantly stronger user experience than legacy systems, and will become commonplace over the next few years.”