Biometrics , Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Security Operations

P2P Payments: How to Balance Security and Convenience

Jim Bray of Identité, an authentication solutions firm, and Steve Ledford of The Clearing House, a payments platform that all federally insured U.S. depository institutions are eligible to use for payments, discuss the role that biometrics can play in preventing P2P payment fraud while maintaining consumer convenience.

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"VPs of fraud want something more absolute and hard-factor," Bray says. "And biometrics is considered more of a hard factor."

Ledford adds: "We need to think of the experience. For instance, a consumer may be making that payment with a mobile app. We need to incorporate things like face ID, where [the consumer is] already looking at their phone … so that it seems like a natural part of what they are doing."

In a video interview with Information Security Media Group, the two experts also discuss:

• The challenges involved in fighting against faster payment fraud;
• Appropriate authentication mechanisms;
• How to balance a smooth experience with security.

Bray is the vice president of business development channel partners at Identité. He has more than 30 years of experience developing and managing sales and operations teams, including at IBM, AT&T and Oracle.

Ledford is the senior vice president of products and strategy at The Clearing House. He works with payments leaders on strategic issues. Earlier, he was a partner with Novantas, a financial services consulting firm. Before that, he was a leader in McKinsey’s global payments practice and was president of Global Concepts, a consulting and research firm.