Emerging Naked Payments Platform Links Face, Palm Biometrics to Credit Cards

“…PeasyPay says it’s working on further pilot programs that will see its biometric payments system used by taxi drivers at the Glasgow Airport’s parking area, and at a restaurant in Slovenia.”

Another biometric payments platform is emerging, this time from Hungary.

The startup’s eponymous platform, “PeasyPay”, is designed to link an end user’s credit card to their face and palm biometrics. Users can register through a smartphone app, and will then be able to conduct transactions with participating merchants simply scanning their faces and palms at a special POS terminal.

The startup has been operational at a coffee shop in Budapest since December of last year, while a new pilot in Guadalajara, Spain, got underway in July. That pilot is in partnership with four shops, and PeasyPay says it’s going to expand to include 25 shops including bakeries, bookstores, and butcher shops.

Going forward, PeasyPay says it’s working on further pilot programs that will see its biometric payments system used by taxi drivers at the Glasgow Airport’s parking area, and at a restaurant in Slovenia.

Biometric payments – also referred to as “naked payments” – are a novel concept, but may represent an important new trend in the payments sector. Multiple other biometric payments platforms have emerged in recent years, often based on a single biometric modality such as facial recognition.

PeasyPay’s system has the burden of requiring special POS hardware and a more elaborate authentication process for end users, but the startup says its multimodal approach offers greater accuracy and security for end users. It also stresses that its platform is compliant with the European Union’s GDPR regulation and its requirement of express consent for the sharing of biometric data.

PeasyPay was launched by Hungary’s EIT Digital through its Innovation Factory, and is backed by Spain’s Ci3 and Liberbank, Hungary’s E-Group and OTP Bank, and Slovenia’s AV Living Lab.

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September 10, 2020 – by Alex Perala