IDEMIA and Mastercard Embark on Biometric Payment Card Pilot

IDEMIA and Mastercard have moved forward with their first trial of a biometric payment card in Asia. The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Singaporean FinTech specialist MatchMove, using a card that relies on fingerprint recognition for authentication.  

The card has been dubbed the F.CODE Easy, and it is appropriately based on IDEMIA’s F.CODE payment card technology. F.CODE Easy does not have a battery, and instead draws power directly from payment terminals. The card replaces PIN codes with a fingerprint scan to authorize payments at the point of sale, using a biometric template that is locally stored on the card rather than in a central database. In that regard, F.CODE Easy is compliant with Mastercard’s ISO security standards.  

The trial itself is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of the year. MatchMove will issue cards to Mastercard, IDEMIA and MatchMove employees, who will then use the cards to make in-person purchases, and during live demonstrations for potential customers.

The employees that receive F.CODE Easy cards will be able to register their fingerprints at home using convenient enrollment technology from IDEMIA. The three companies noted that COVID-19 has discouraged the use of cash, and are hoping that the contactless F.CODE Easy will accelerate that process as people search for more sanitary and secure payment options.

“As people make a permanent move to contactless transactions, the biometric card promises more choice and greater security for consumers,” said Mastercard Asia Pacific EVP Matthew Driver, Executive Vice President.

“We are shaping the future of payments into one powered by biometrics,” added IDEMIA Financial Institutions Asia Pacific SVP Vincent Mouret. “We are delighted to partner with Mastercard and MatchMove to launch F.CODE Easy in Asia and we look forward to continuing to work together to provide end-to-end security for fintechs.”

The MatchMove collaboration is one of several next-generation card projects for IDEMIA. The company is currently working on a new biometric card solution with Zwipe and IDEX Biometrics, and recently launched an Accelerator Card Program to help FinTech players get more biometric cards into production. Mastercard and IDEMIA have also deployed the latter’s Motion Code technology in a new credit card in Spain.

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(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)