In relation to a system which effects one-to-many authentication using biometric information; e.g., a fingerprint, an iris, voice, a facial image, a vascular pattern, a dynamic signature, or a keystroke, in order to significantly shorten the time required to verify registered feature information against input feature information, there is performed extraction of verification-purpose feature information and a plurality of types of verification-purpose attribute information from the biometric information about an object of authentication; computation of verification priority levels of a plurality of registration-purpose feature information items on the basis of registration-purpose attribute information and the verification-purpose attribute information, both being associated with the registration-purpose feature information items; and sequential verification of the verification-purpose feature information against registration-purpose feature information in accordance with a computed verification priority level, thereby specifying registration-purpose feature information matching said verification-purpose feature information from said plurality of registration-purpose feature information items.