With the latest biometric payment card pilot announced with Europe’s top three bank Crédit Agricole in France, Fingerprints™ has confirmed that 20 contactless card pilots around the world now incorporate its fingerprint touch sensors.
“This is a key milestone for us, and momentum is growing rapidly,” comments Thomas Rex, SVP of Smartcards at Fingerprints. “Awareness is growing as banks, retailers and consumers recognize the value that biometrics can offer. Banks can reduce fraud and grow trust to retain and attract customers and retailers can maximize throughput and reduce drop-outs, increasing revenues. Most importantly, consumers no longer have to compromise security in the name of convenience.”
Banks around the world are set to commercially launch biometric-enabled payment cards, and to make this a reality, Fingerprints is working with leading card manufacturers, payments schemes and banks on trials across Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and Asia. The biometric sensor can replace PIN and signature authentication with a fingerprint. This delivers greater security without impacting the speed and convenience of contactless and will also harmonize the user experience as the contactless transaction cap can be removed. The path to market is similar to that seen when contactless payment cards launched a decade ago, with UK and France leading the way.
“These trials are essential to the success of the technology,” adds Thomas. “They are an opportunity to finetune biometric cards with feedback from the people that will launch and use them, and it is also an important step in the certification process. We’re now in the final phases before wider roll outs, so it is extremely exciting that every announced biometric contactless payment card trial globally to date features our technology.”
Fingerprints’ T-shape module is optimized for integration into smartcards using existing industry processes and is part of the ultra-thin FPC1300-series. It has ultra-low power consumption which means that the cards do not need to feature a battery, borrowing power from the POS terminal and, together with optimized software, superior biometric performance ensures both security and convenience for cardholders.
For more information about biometric payment cards and all of the announced contactless trials, visit the Fingerprints website.
