More than 25% of the UK population is in favour of digital payment
systems that use eye or fingerprint recognition, according to the
latest Egg/Mori survey on attitudes to new technology.
According to Egg and Mori, 5.5 million Britons now bank online - a
six-month increase of 37.5%. Of the 2,000 people surveyed, 27% said
they would happily swap their wallets for digital payment
systems.
"The extent to which many people are receptive to new technologies
of the future is extremely interesting," said Robert Worcester,
chairman of Mori. "One quarter of the general public - and four in
10 of those under 35 years old - say they would like to see
technology that establishes who people are and how much money they
have with iris or fingerprint recognition, meaning that one would
never have to carry a wallet again."
The survey also found that 46% of respondents have either bought or
serviced a financial product over the Internet, compared to 34% in
August. The three most popular financial products to be arranged
over the Internet were insurance, credit cards and savings
accounts.
In addition, 37% of people said they would be interested in using a
single Internet site which enabled them to choose and compare
financial products from a range of suppliers.