VeriTrans, NEC Partner to Provide Facial Recognition Tech for 7-Eleven Japan Cashless Payment Trial

Payment service provider Veritrans Inc. and multinational information technology and electronics company NEC Corporation have announced a partnership to provide the latter’s facial recognition technology for a cashless payment trial for 7-Eleven Japan.

The system will combine NEC’s facial recognition payment platform with VeriTrans’ credit card payment service, and will be trialed during a proof of concept period that aims to determine whether facial recognition payments improve a customer’s shopping experience by reducing stress and improving convenience for both cash-based and cashless payments.

The new system — which will be trialed at a 7-Eleven store in Kojimachi Ekimae, Tokyo — works by having employees enter the customer’s information (including a picture, credit card details, and a confirmation code) into a registration app. Following the initial registration, two-factor authentication by facial recognition and confirmation code is conducted at the checkout station, where the payment is completed and processed using the credit card information that is linked to the customer’s ID.

Last year, Seven Bank — a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Co., which also owns 7-Eleven Japan — announced plans to bring biometric customer authentication to its ATMs that are located in 7-Eleven stores across Japan.

The use of cashless payment systems is on the rise in Japan, with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry stating its goal to raise the percentage of these types of payments to 40% by the year 2025.

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March 23, 2020 – by Tony Bitzionis

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