Biometric Authentication for Bank Card Users in Libya An Exploratory Study of Usability and User Acceptance in High-Security Systems

Abstract

Digital banking in Libya still relies almost entirely on personal identification numbers (PINs) to verify card holders. This paper reports a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), human-centered design field study asking whether biometric authentication — fingerprint or facial recognition — could offer a more usable, acceptable verification experience, centered on usability and user acceptance rather than security engineering, since no biometric banking system yet exists in Libya to evaluate directly. A structured survey was administered in Al-Zawiya during 2026 to three linked stakeholder groups: bank card holders (n = 100), merchants operating point-of-sale devices (n = 30), and bank employees (n = 20), for a combined sample of 150. Perceived ease of use — the study's central construct — was rated favorably by all three groups and, uniquely, showed no significant cross-group difference (Kruskal-Wallis, p = 0.854); future behavioral intention among customers was the highest-scoring dimension measured (M = 4.23). Item-level analysis surfaced two findings a composite mean would hide: a privacy paradox, where customers reported little acute worry about data misuse (10–12% agreement) yet unanimously wanted clear legal protection (100%); and a hardware gap, where no bank employee agreed current point-of-sale terminals can be upgraded for biometrics (0% agreement). Adoption enthusiasm formed a statistically confirmed "readiness gradient," highest among customers and most measured among employees closest to operational realities. The paper closes with usability-centered recommendations — modality choice, layered biometric-plus-PIN verification, and hardware-first investment — contributing to HCI literature on pre-implementation evaluation of biometric systems in high-security financial contexts.