Fiserv Research Reflects Rise of Consumer FinTech

“…49 percent of respondents in Fiserv’s surveys said they would feel secure with biometric authentication in financial services.”

Consumers are increasingly open to the idea of receiving financial services from tech companies, suggests new research from Fiserv, Inc.

The findings come by way of Fiserv’s newly published “Expectations & Experiences: Channels and New Entrants” study, based on surveys of 3,050 consumers conducted by The Harris Poll. Fifty-five percent of respondents said they would be comfortable paying their bills via a tech company such as Apple or Google, whereas only 40 percent said the same last year. Thirty-nine percent said they would use such a tech company to take out a loan, up from 29 percent a year ago; and 52 percent said the same for money transfers, an increase of 14 percent.

That all suggests that the efforts of Apple, Google, Samsung, and other major tech companies to get people to use their digital wallets for e-transfers and in-store payments are gaining traction.

The same might be said for these companies’ pioneering efforts in introducing biometric technologies to consumers. With fingerprint sensors and face-scanning authentication systems now prominent across major smartphone brands, 49 percent of respondents in Fiserv’s surveys said they would feel secure with biometric authentication in financial services.

It’s no surprise, of course, to see technological innovations from one sector finding their way into another. But the distinction between tech and financial services is blurring, and at least some of the trends involved can be seen in this latest Fiserv research.