Just in time for this year’s Money20/20 event in Las Vegas, Goode Intelligence has issued a new report on the growing prominence of biometric technology in payments, entitled, “Biometrics for Payments; Market and Technology Analysis, Adoption Strategies and Forecasts 2018-2023 – Second Edition”.

Much of the report’s analysis concerns the same trends outlined in FindBiometrics’ recent feature on the ‘Convenient Revolution’ of biometrics in payments – the use of biometrics for authentication in online and mobile channels; the emergence of ‘naked payments’ (a term coined by FindBiometrics in 2014) that directly link consumers’ biometric credentials to their payment accounts, bypassing the need for physical payment cards and smartphones; and the rise of biometric payment cards, which are currently in development and approaching the mass commercialization phase. With respect to that last trend, Goode Intelligence predicts that almost 579 million biometric payment cards will be in use by 2023.

The Goode Intelligence report also offers other novel insights, including predictions concerning the ascent of biometric wearables, and smartwatches in particular. The report notes that the ECG capabilities of the recently announced Apple Watch Series 4 could be applied to user authentication, and that Apple indeed will use the device to authorize transactions on Apple Pay starting next year, with other wearable device makers to follow its lead.

All told, Goode Intelligence forecasts that by 2023, there will be more than 2.6 billion consumers making payments facilitate by biometric technology, a development that should represent a huge leap forward in both payments security and convenience.