With European banks facing PSD2’s secure customer authentication requirements, biometrics is taking center stage as a simple solution that doesn’t compromise user experience across mobile payments, banking applications and, of course, on card.
While the first volume deployment of biometric cards will be in payments, the applications of the technology are much more diverse.
In the same way that biometrics has transformed the mobile space, it’s rapidly taking hold of the payments world and beyond. In an age of increasingly connected, more seamless solutions across industries, security and the consumer experience sit at the heart of everything.
Biometrics offers the perfect balance of trust with convenience that will be key to keeping up in this new age and will see the technology continue to thrive in smartphones, but also in applications far beyond.
It’d be naïve to look too far ahead, but we can be sure that if the rest of the year continues with the same pace as the first quarter, the biometrics industry will certainly be kept busy.
Last year saw biometric payment cards go from talk to trial. Partnerships with banks, vendors and payments schemes gained traction worldwide and have continued to do so into 2019.
In March, we saw the U.K.’s first biometric payment card trial announced from Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest. Unsurprisingly, given the nation’s love of contactless, scrapping the £30 payment cap was central to the trial of what NatWest called “the biggest development in card technology in recent years.
Earlier in the year, we also saw the world’s first volume order of fingerprint sensors for dual-interface payment cards placed by the global digital security company Gemalto. The announced partnership and order represent a major milestone for the technology’s path to market, and the countdown is on as to when we’ll see the first commercial biometric card in the hands of consumers.
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