FPC Survey Finds Broad Support for Contactless Biometric Payment Cards

Fingerprint Cards (FPC) has conducted a poll of banks and consumers in an effort to learn more about their views about financial security and the prospects for biometric payment cards. The company found that banks and consumers are generally aligned in their views, especially when it comes to the significance of contactless payments.

On that front, both banks and consumers are fully on board with contactless payments, though their priorities for the next step differ. While banks are looking to remove the contactless payment cap, consumers are focused on security, with 51 percent of respondents indicating that they are worried or very worried about the threat of fraud.

Thankfully, biometric technology offers a potential solution to both problems. A biometric payment card with the user’s fingerprint data stored only on the card would make consumers feel safer and allow banks to lift the current cap on contactless payments.

FPC found that there is support for the technology now that smartphones have made consumers more comfortable with fingerprint scanners. However, both banks and consumers were concerned with ease of use, with 79 percent of banks suggesting that self-enrollment would be essential for the widespread adoption of the technology.

For its part, FPC has been increasingly focused on the biometric card market, and has now deployed its fingerprint tech in 20 different payment card trials. The company has also been working to educate consumers, most notably with a demo kit designed to facilitate the self-enrollment process.

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September 13, 2019 – by Eric Weiss