Due in great part to the COVID-19 epidemic, the digital transformation of financial services has advanced in recent years. Limitations on in-person contacts and travel have forced many activities, including banking, to move to internet platforms. The use of digital financial tools and platforms, including digital wallets, fintech products, and online banking apps, has surged to an unprecedented degree as a result of this change. By dismantling conventional barriers and altering the conventions surrounding financial transactions, these tools have completely changed the way individuals handle their finances.
It is impossible to overestimate the significance of trustworthy and creative identity verification techniques while the financial landscape keeps changing in this manner. In addition to enabling flawless user experiences and fostering trust, identity verification is an essential line of defence against risks like fraud and identity theft.
To overcome these issues, virtual reality offers a special chance. Financial institutions may develop a safe and user-friendly identity verification procedure that integrates the newest innovations to offer a secure and engaging experience by utilising the immersive and interactive qualities of virtual reality.
Usually, identity verification is the reason behind asking to see a driver's licence, Social Security card, birth certificate, or other such form of identification. Computer systems and interpersonal interactions both use identity verification. Verification of digital identification is what this is.
The process of authenticating people's identities online when they register for new digital services or conduct transactions via digital means is known as digital identity verification. There is now a demand for entirely virtual channels of authentication due to the growth of digital transactions. People no longer feel the need to leave the comfort of their homes for basic errands like groceries, and the availability of banking services should imply the same ease.
Fintech service providers are developing new identity verification systems, each with particular advantages for the market:
- Examining Biometric Authentication: Biometric verification provides outstanding security and enhances user ease by employing unique qualities like voice recognition, fingerprints, or face features.
- Blockchain Solutions: This technology helps to improve user privacy and reduce fraud by offering a transparent, immutable, and trustworthy method of identity verification.
- AI Verification Utilisation: Businesses may successfully detect and stop fraudulent activity by utilising AI's ability to quickly assess trends and spot anomalies in user behaviour.
- Zero-Knowledge Proof: This cryptographic technique enables data verification without disclosing the actual data. Zero-knowledge proof protects user privacy while enabling reliable verification in financial virtual reality.
Several solutions have emerged to address the challenges of identity verification in fintech. One of the most promising solutions is the use of behavioural biometrics, which involves analysing an individual's behaviour and patterns to verify their identity. This approach can be particularly effective in VR environments, where users' movements and gestures can be tracked to create a unique identity profile.
Our senses provide us with all the information we need to understand our reality. Stated differently, our perception of reality is essentially a synthesis of sensory data and the cognitive processes involved in interpreting that data. Therefore, it would change if you could artificially provide your senses with false information. A fake version of reality would be shown to you, but it would appear real to you because of your perspective. something that's often known as virtual reality.
Users can explore and interact with a virtual environment in a way that closely resembles reality as perceived through their senses using a simulated 3D environment known as virtual reality, or VR. Computer technology and software are used to generate the environment, but users may also need to wear goggles, headsets, or bodysuits in order to interact with it.
Computer technology is typically used to implement virtual reality. For this, a variety of devices are employed, including omnidirectional treadmills, special gloves, and headsets. These work by collectively arousing our senses to produce the appearance of reality.
A tool called behavioural biometrics examines consumer behaviour patterns to distinguish good customers from undesirable ones. Utilising machine learning, the system determines if an individual is a legitimate user or a cybercriminal by examining trends in their online behaviour. It works very well for identifying insider threats and sophisticated fraud attempts. It entails examining how a user interacts with a gadget, taking into account variables like:
Body Movement (Kinesthetics): Assesses the customer's unique body movements, such as posture, gait, and handling a device.
Voice Inputs: Examines patterns based on differences in sound produced during speech.
Device-Based: Examines user interaction imprints, such as touch screen interactions, typing speed and style, cursor movement, and keystrokes.
Because behavioural biometrics use distinct human behaviour patterns to authenticate users, they can dramatically improve identity verification in the financial sector. Through the integration of VR-based behavioural biometrics with other authentication techniques, the system is able to continuously observe user behaviour and identify anomalies in patterns.
An increasing number of applications, known as virtual reality, allow users to engage with financial data and services in immersive virtual settings. Virtual trading floors and immersive financial planning meetings are only two examples of these VR settings, in which users are portrayed by avatars. VR is a concept that offers a more interactive and engaging user experience than typical digital financial services.
VR adoption has the potential to revolutionise the finance sector. With numerous apparent usage cases, such as:
Immersive Banking Experiences: Virtual reality has the potential to revolutionise online banking by providing users with virtual branches where they can engage in transactions, examine financial products, and communicate with financial advisors just like they would in a real branch.
Virtual Interaction: A virtual representative who can walk customers through the entire process, respond to inquiries, and offer individualised help may also be included in the VR-based identity verification process.
Virtual trading platforms: By using virtual reality to build immersive trading environments, traders may examine and visualise market data in three dimensions, which may improve their ability to make decisions.
Financial Education and Training: VR can be used to educate consumers and financial professionals by giving them access to immersive training settings and assisting them in understanding complex financial products.
With the technology still in its infancy, there is still a grey area with VR’s potential. Nonetheless, innovative minds are coming up with ways to step into this wilderness and find ways to make the financial industry safer and more convenient for everybody but bad-faith actors. Some emerging uses for VR include:
Authentication enforcement, dispute resolution, and transaction approval are just a few of the many difficulties that come with conducting financial transactions. By enabling users to make payments inside virtual environments, such the metaverse, virtual reality is improving payment systems. Through this integration, payment trails are greatly reduced and every step of the payment process is optimised.
To demonstrate the possibilities of VR-backed payment systems, Mastercard, in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and Osterhout Design Group (ODG), has collaborated to enable users to log in and make payments using an iris scan within a VR environment.
VR offers cutting-edge solutions to safeguard organisational assets, particularly sensitive financial data, and protect customer privacy in the face of growing cybersecurity threats. In order to restrict unwanted access, virtual reality (VR) can enforce biometric identity verification. It can also mimic breach scenarios in order to detect weaknesses and hazards.
In the banking industry, having global teams has become the new standard as Fintech companies expand. Virtual reality (VR) makes it possible to set up cooperative workspaces where team members may hold meetings in real-time, enhancing engagement and collaboration. Compared to other media, this technology improves communication by simulating in-person encounters.
When compared to VR-backed visualisations, traditional data visualisations such as bars and graphs are less successful. By providing a wider viewpoint and a larger field of vision, virtual reality (VR) facilitates the analysis of massive amounts of data. To make data analysis more effective and engaging, Fidelity Investments, for instance, developed "StockCity," a platform that allows traders and investors to explore stock portfolios in three dimensions.
Virtual reality (VR) can simplify customer assistance by decreasing the need for phone calls, emails, and other conventional methods of communication. By streamlining the account opening and paperwork handling processes, it makes customer onboarding more efficient. For example, virtual tours of houses with high net worth can assist investors in making better judgements.
Studies show that virtual reality platforms increase the retention of knowledge. By using virtual reality (VR) for scenario-based and gamified learning, finance teams may simplify difficult financial topics. Virtual reality (VR) can also be used to simulate trades in order to reduce risk before performing transactions in real life. This is especially helpful for portfolio management.
Perceived ease of use, curiosity, social impact, and product features are important factors in digital banking for Gen Y and Gen Z. These future consumers, who have grown up in a technologically advanced society, can have their demands met via VR. VR can keep the finance industry relevant and draw in new business by improving usability, user experience, and efficiency.
Leveraging the distinct patterns of user interactions within the virtual environment, virtual reality (VR) can be utilised to capture and analyse a variety of user behaviours for identity verification. In order to create a unique identification profile, this method—known as behavioural biometrics—involves gathering and evaluating data on user gestures, motions, and other behaviours. VR can be utilised in the following significant ways to verify identity:
Hand and Head Movements: In order to generate a distinctive behavioural profile, virtual reality systems track the user's hand and head movements, including gestures. Users' identities can be verified and their identities can be identified using this data.
Eye Gaze Patterns: As a user moves through the VR world, the system tracks their eye gaze patterns, which can also be used to determine their general behavioural profile.
Voice Patterns: To provide an additional degree of verification, the system records the user's speech patterns and intonations as they are interacting with the VR environment.
Body Normalisation: To ensure that all participants have the same virtual physical attributes, the system can normalise the user's virtual body proportions in order to increase identification accuracy. This lessens the effect that physical variations have on the identifying process.
Algorithms for Machine Learning: After the behavioural data is gathered, it is sent into algorithms for machine learning, which examine and contrast the patterns to determine the user. Over time, these algorithms can be trained to identify particular patterns and increase the accuracy of their identifications.
Continuous Authentication: Virtual reality (VR) systems have the ability to track user behaviour in real-time, enabling real-time authentication and guaranteeing that the user's identity is maintained throughout the user's interaction with the system.
Task-Based Scenarios: The system can be made to resemble popular virtual reality activities, including games or simulations, in which users engage with the surroundings in a natural way. This method can preserve excellent recognition accuracy while offering a more captivating and immersive experience.
To improve security, behavioural biometrics can be combined with already available virtual reality (VR) technologies. Behavioural biometrics has been the subject of recent research on the automatic and ongoing identification of users in virtual reality. In order to identify and validate people, behavioural biometrics analyses patterns of human behaviour such as voice patterns, body language, and gestures. By using this technology, VR environments may provide users with a more safe and engaging experience. Here are a few instances of applications:
Motion Forecasting: To improve the precision of user identification and authentication, behavioural biometrics can be used with motion forecasting methods to anticipate and examine human motions in virtual reality environments.
Task-Oriented Scenarios: In task-based virtual reality environments, such as games or simulations, where users naturally engage with the environment, behavioural biometrics can be used.
Body Normalisation: To ensure that every participant has the same virtual physical attributes, behavioural biometrics can normalise user body proportions. This reduces the impact of physical variances on the identification process.
The rise of digital transactions and the need to strike a balance between security and user experience are what are driving the need for identity verification in the digital age. Behavioural biometrics and VR offer a promising solution for identity verification. For those ahead of the curve, it is a good chance to jump on this technology and explore its untapped potential.
This blog is published by Laura Hall.
