GD Next Collaborates with Aware to Bring Biometric Authentication to Financial Services Institutions and B2B2C Businesses, Supporting PSD2 Compliance

Collaboration Will Enable Financial Services Institutions across the DACH Region to Improve End-User Experience and Protect Conversions While Achieving Regulatory Compliance

BURLINGTON, MASS. – July 11, 2024 – The Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2), also known as the Revised Payment Services Directive, is a European regulation to create a more open, competitive, and secure payment landscape across Europe. A major development in PSD2 is the introduction of new security requirements, known as Strong Customer Authentication (or two-factor authentication), which financial services companies can use to authenticate end-user payments. Typically, this is a combination of things a person knows, owns, and/or is – for example, a password, phone, or fingerprint.

GD Next, a global software solution provider and system integration company with expertise in transaction banking, has helped a large number of banks in the EU to achieve the necessary PSD2 compliance through its banking-specific expertise and pre-built components. A major criticism of the choreography of many PSD2 flows has been that the required two-factor authentication is very much at the expense of user-friendliness and often leads to process breaks, resulting in a suffering conversion. The introduction of secure biometric solutions, the use of which is at the discretion of the respective institution, provides a remedy. To this end, GD Next has entered into a partnership with Aware, Inc. (NASDAQ: AWRE), a leading global authentication company, to offer a cost-effective yet highly secure alternative that meets all the requirements of the PSD2 directive.

“The simplicity of a workflow and the security that needs to be guaranteed are often in conflict. The choreography of using financial APIs has shown that if you want to achieve broad acceptance, you have to put yourself in the user’s shoes. The basic idea, using the financial industry as an example, can be applied to all other industries, such as the insurance industry, telecommunications industry, e-commerce, etc. In B2B2C businesses, a seamless and intuitive user experience is essential. Users are not very forgiving,” says Rene Pongratz, CEO at GD Next. “Aware’s biometric technology helps solve this conflicting task by providing new factors for authentication while being very convenient and smooth for the end user. We expect it to play a major role in helping our customers optimize their conversion.”

As GD Next works to meet the evolving needs of its customers, Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, including digital onboarding and identity verification, will be additional focus areas where Aware will be the solution provider. With biometrics, GD Next can streamline KYC processes, improve end-user experience, and strengthen security for B2B2C business across Europe.

“Financial services institutions across Europe are eager for a solution that enhances security and satisfies SCA without compromising the end-user experience,” said Craig Herman, Chief Revenue Officer at Aware. “As we continue to expand our partner ecosystem, we have been able to establish a unique position in the market as an experienced compliance partner with best-in-class biometric authentication technologies. This makes it a no-brainer for us to collaborate with GD Next to drive further adoption of biometrics across the DACH region.”

GD Next is the latest addition to Aware’s partner program and an excellent example of how a solutions provider can competitively differentiate by offering Aware’s technology to meet the evolving needs of its financial services customers. To learn more about Aware, please visit www.aware.com.  

About Aware

Aware is a global biometric platform company that uses data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to tackle everyday business and identity challenges through biometrics. For over 30 years we’ve been a trusted name in the field. Aware’s offerings address the growing challenges that government and commercial enterprises face in knowing, authenticating and securing individuals through frictionless and highly secure user experiences. Our algorithms are based on diverse operational data sets from around the world, and we prioritize making biometric technology in an ethical and responsible manner. Aware is a publicly held company (NASDAQ: AWRE) based in Burlington, Massachusetts. To learn more, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

About GD Next

GD Next is a group of companies with headquarters in Switzerland that focuses on providing cost-effective software solutions especially in the financial and banking area. GD Next specializes in Open Finance, Identity and Access Management, API Management, Security and Cryptography. Driven by innovation, the company strives to underpin modern banking and do its best to improve customer journeys. GD Next has its own suite of open banking solutions that gives the customer PSD2 and GDPR-compliant interfaces to process sensitive financial data frictionlessly and securely. The Vendor offers a full cycle of software development and maintenance, including identification of Use Cases, UI/UX design, Project setup and running, architectural design, infrastructure planning and setup, development, automation testing, rolling out, support and maintenance. To learn more, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn.

Safe Harbor Warning

Portions of this release contain forward-looking statements regarding future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties, such as our expectations regarding our new product. Aware wishes to caution you that there are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results indicated by such statements, including the risks that i) a significant commercial market for biometrics technology may not develop, and if it does, we may not be successful in that market; ii) the biometrics market may not experience significant growth or our products may not achieve broad acceptance; iii) we face intense competition from other biometrics solution providers; iv) our business is subject to rapid technological change; v) our software products may have errors, defects or bugs which could harm our business; and vi) part of our future business is dependent on market demand for, and acceptance of, the cloud-based model for the use of software. We refer you to the documents Aware files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the section titled Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and other reports and filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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CONTACT

Delaney Gembis
Aware, Inc.
781-687-0393
marketing@aware.com