Mastercard Launches Biometric Payment Card in Asia

“The card features an embedded fingerprint sensor, allowing cardholders to authenticate during contactless, ‘tap-to-pay’ transactions.”

Mastercard has launched a biometric payment card in Asia, according to a report from Hong Kong’s The Standard.

The rollout would appear to be related to a biometric card pilot announced in late October. Undertaken in collaboration with Singapore-based MatchMove and IDEMIA, the pilot was to get underway in the fourth quarter of the year. The Standard reports that Mastercard has now launched its biometric solution in collaboration with IDEMIA’s Singapore arm.

The card features an embedded fingerprint sensor, allowing cardholders to authenticate during contactless, ‘tap-to-pay’ transactions. It has been launched alongside a new Mastercard initiative called “Pay by Account”, which lets consumers pay through any linked account using the same card.

The news arrives immediately after IDEMIA’s announcement that it had attained an ICCN security certificate for its biometric card solution’s secure chip. Issued by EMVCo, the ICCN security certificate is an important step in the path toward large-scale rollouts of IDEMIA’s biometric card, as well as the Zwipe card solution using the same technology.

Mastercard also announced the launch of a post-password online shopping solution called “Click to Pay” in Hong Kong, and said it had obtained a patent for a system that would embed QR codes into its cards to enable actions like bill splitting and money transfers on the part of cardholders.

Source: The Standard

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December 22, 2020 – by Alex Perala