Mastercard has been working with Japanese technology giant NEC Corporation to expand its Biometric Checkout Programme across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The collaboration aims to transform traditional checkout experiences by leveraging NEC’s advanced biometric authentication capabilities.
This expansion builds upon Mastercard and NEC’s existing partnership from November 2023, when the companies first signed a Memorandum of Understanding to accelerate their collaboration on biometric payment solutions.
The initiative aligns with Mastercard’s broader strategy to eliminate passwords and manual card entry by 2030, replacing traditional authentication methods with biometric alternatives. NEC brings substantial expertise to the partnership, having successfully implemented biometric solutions at major international events. The company is well known for its highly accurate NeoFace facial recognition system, which has seen major deployments around the world, including with police services in the United Kingdom.
The partnership comes as Mastercard continues to expand its biometric payment solutions globally. The company has already launched similar initiatives in other regions, including a successful deployment in Uruguay’s Tienda Inglesa Red Express store network last year.
Industry analysts expect this expansion to accelerate the adoption of biometric payment solutions throughout the APAC region, where the point-of-sale (POS) software market is projected to experience the fastest growth globally. The collaboration also builds upon Mastercard’s recent efforts to enhance payment security, including its partnership with Feedzai to combat AI-driven fraud through enhanced biometric security.
The implementation will leverage NEC’s FIDO2-compliant biometric authentication platform, which has been continuously enhanced since its 2019 upgrade to support multiple authentication modalities and ensure secure user verification.
Sources: Fintech Futures, CIO Tech Asia
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March 26, 2025 – by Ali Nassar-Smith
