INSIDER INSIGHT: Can Jiko Tame The Wild West Of Digital Banking?

Gone are the days of bandits terrorizing banks in the Old West – but that doesn’t mean banks are safe in the modern age.

Online fraudsters pose threats that those bank robbers couldn’t possibly fathom, with the power to potential affect hundreds of thousands of consumers’ accounts – if not more. And now, new financial institutions are relying on technology to find ways to stop increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals in their tracks.

The November edition of the PYMNTS Digital Identity Tracker, powered by Socure, features coverage of the headlines surrounding these new security solutions, including the latest in facial recognition and other biometric software.

Around the Digital Identity World

Facial recognition is seemingly ready for its biometric breakthrough. According to some projections, biometric software using facial recognition capabilities is on pace to become a $20 billion business by the end of the decade.

What’s more, the tech has been thrust into the forefront of late, with big players like Alibaba, Apple and Facebook announcing new software and hardware that will use facial recognition to authenticate consumers and protect sensitive information and financial details. Even governments, including the EU, have announced plans to bolster border security with the biometric tech.

But the new tech isn’t without controversy. Apple has been accused of promising suppliers it would reduce the accuracy of biometric facial recognition to speed up production and get the iPhone X on shelves more quickly, a rumor the company is denying.

For a roundup of the latest notable headlines from around the space, check out the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

Taming the Wild West of Digital Banking

While some are entrusting facial recognition software with authenticating users and granting access to key accounts, others are turning to alternate technology. That includes Jiko, a digital bank and brokerage service that’s currently in the pre-launch stage.

The company is looking to offer users a new kind of security service. According to the company’s CEO, Stephane Lintner, the FI avoids housing customer info in a central database. Instead, he told PYMNTS in a recent interview for November’s Tracker, the company makes each user’s account separate and responsible for its own information.

“Instead of building a stack that requires large central databases with database administrators and all these other things, we shrank the stack to the level of the user,” Lintner said. “It’s a very decentralized architecture.”

To read this month’s Digital Identity Tracker Feature Story, download the Tracker.

To download the November edition of the Digital Identity Tracker, powered by Socure, please fill out the form below.

The PYMNTS.com Digital Identity Tracker, powered by Socure, is a forum for framing and addressing key issues and trends facing the entities charged with efficiently and securely identifying and granting permission to individuals to access, purchase, transact or otherwise confirm their identity.