Marius Coetzee

South Africa is ahead of many countries in terms of biometric technology uptake. This emerged at an executive briefing held for financial industry representatives in Rosebank recently.

The briefing, hosted by biometric identity control specialists Ideco and Stanley Security, in partnership with ITWeb, outlined the risks of identity fraud in financial services, and the inadequacy of existing identification methods.

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Pavlo Phitidis" src="http://www.iweek.co.za/images/stories/2010/june12/june12_20/pavlo_phitidis.jpg" />Ideco MD Marius Coetzee said SA was adopting biometric technology in many industry verticals, with Ideco technology being used to verify the identities of over 2.5 million employees around the country. He noted that cards, pins and passwords were not failproof, with local organisations having lost an estimated R150 billion due to identity-based fraud last year alone. In contrast, biometric fingerprint technology has been found to be the most effective and mature identity verification tool available, he said.

Glen Baptiste

In addition to significantly reducing the risk of identity fraud, biometric identity management also allows for better staff control, tracking of transactions and logistics, and resource deployment, he said. The improvements in terms of control and management are measurable and impact significantly on a company’s bottom line, he pointed out.

Also speaking at the event were Pavlo Phitidis, business consultant and CEO of Aurik Business Incubator, and Glen Baptiste, sales director at Stanley Security Solutions.