Magnetic cards and smartcards try to make it impractical to break a bank's systems. Biometrics takes this a stage further by making fraud almost impossible. Some part of an individual's body is used to verify that the correct person is making the transaction.

In contrast, some things are unique about an individual — voice, fingerprints, shape of a hand, signature (not only what it looks like but also how it is written). Scientists who are developing ways to measure these unique biological traits have created a new technology called biometrics that promises some useful tools for banking operations.