British consumers are placing more trust in banks over government agencies with the security of their biometric information, according to a new research by Visa.

Of the 2,000 respondents surveyed in the study, 60% said that they trust banks for the storage and the safety of their biometric data such as fingerprints and iris scans, compared to only 33% who trust government agencies.

Majority (85%) of respondents opted for banks when asked who they would trust to offer biometrics authentication as a service to confirm identity. Payment networks were trusted by 81%, global online brands by 70% and smartphone companies by 64%.

Further, 64% of consumers said that they want to use biometrics as a method of payment authentication, with 80% of the respondents favouring fingerprint recognition.

Fingerprint authentication is also considered as the most secure form of payment, with the method preferred by 88% of respondents. Iris scanning is preferred by 83% of respondents and facial recognition by 65%.

Visa UK and Ireland MD Kevin Jenkins said: "Banks have a tremendous opportunity in this payment revolution. From trialling voice recognition to behavioural biometrics for authentication, we’re already seeing banks – both high street and challenger banks, alike – making positive steps to adopt this technology in a variety of use cases.

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"This consumer confidence in both authentication as well as the storage of their biometric data gives banks the perfect win-win scenario, enabling them to provide a service that the public wants which will also benefit the banks, themselves."