Brits are nearly twice as likely to trust banks to store and keep safe their biometric information as they are to trust government agencies, according to a survey from Visa.

Of around 2000 people quizzed by the payments giant, 60% say that they would put their faith in banks to look after fingerprints and iris scans, compared to just 33% who trust the government.

When asked who they would trust to offer biometrics authentication as a service to confirm identity, 85% select banks - up from 65% in 2014. Payments networks are the next most trusted, by 81% of respondents, ahead of global online brands on 70%, and smartphone companies on 64%.

Nearly two-thirds want to use biometrics as a method of payment authentication and familiarity is increasing the comfort level of British consumers. The growth in fingerprint authentication for mobile payments is bringing to life the benefits of biometrics, helping to explain why 80% are the most comfortable with this form of security.

Fingerprint authentication (88%) is also viewed as the most secure form of payment, ranking higher than other options such as iris-scanning (83%) and facial recognition (65%).

And the technology could be an important factor in winning and retaining customers, with a quarter of 18-24 year olds are likely to switch banks that didn’t offer biometric authentication, compared with 17% for other generations.

Kevin Jenkins, MD, UK and Ireland, Visa, says: "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.

"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."