UL’s lab in São Paulo received the accreditation, following an analysis of the technical capacity of UL and its team in the region. UL is proud to work closely with Brazilian banks to ensure the optimal performance of biometric systems, and understand the fundamentals of having a unique standard in Brazil, which guarantee’s the safe data exchange between banks and customers.

Marcos Nunes, Director of Digital Security for UL Latin America, said: “It is an important step forward in the discussion with market shareholders about the benefits and challenges that biometrics is bringing. Our objective is to encourage and support Brazilian banks to implement biometrics, as it is already actively rolled out in other countries”.

When using physical data such as fingerprints, or facial features to confirm someone’s identity, biometrics combines safety and convenience to safely carry out this process. “Processes that require multiple passwords and personal data, require time and patience from the customer. Applying biometrics to means of payment will simplify the process and eventually, in the future, people may not even need to carry a wallet to make purchases anymore” added Marcos.

To reach this point in technology, biometrics needs to be combined with other ways of validation. In July 2016, the Transaction Security division of UL held a ‘Hackathon’, focusing on the Biometric operation and security. During the event, over 30 people from UL offices around the globe (including Australia, China, Brazil, England, Ireland, America and the Netherlands), were given two days to attempt to implement or break various biometric systems - they succeeded. One group successfully fooled systems using fingerprint readings, by creating a film fingerprint, generated simply from pictures of a thumb. Chen Chi, Advisory and Innovated Leader from UL Transaction Security, stated: “The systems based on biometrics have issues, and our paper is to help institutions to improve their practices and ensure the benefits of this technology to its customers”.

UL currently collaborates with FIDO Alliance, an international consortium integrated by banks, credit card operators and technology companies, to standardize practices and processes related to biometrics in financial transactions.