Pay With Your Fingerprint: Natwest Launches First Fingerprint Debit Card.
NatWest is launching Britain’s first biometric bank card which will allow people to verify payments over £30 – the current contactless card limit – without the need to enter a PIN at the till.
It will verify card payments using the owner’s fingerprint and will be used by 200 customers in Britain.
Bank cards used in the trial will store information which means people can verify payments by placing their finger over a box on the card.
This is then swiped at the till without a PIN being entered.
As well as perhaps being simpler than keying in a PIN, such technology could potentially help people who have difficulty remembering number codes and may be useful to vulnerable customers.
David Crawford, NatWest head of effortless payments, said: ‘We are using the very latest technology across our business to make banking easier for our customers and biometric fingerprint cards are one of the many technologies we are exploring
‘This is the biggest development in card technology in recent years and we are excited to trial the service.’
NatWest said it worked closely with digital security company Gemalto along with Visa and Mastercard to bring the service to customers in the UK.
Howard Berg, UK managing director of Gemalto, said: ‘Using a fingerprint rather than a PIN to authorise transactions has many advantages, primarily enhanced security and greater convenience.
‘Cardholders can pay quickly and easily with just a simple touch, and they no longer need to worry about the limit on contactless payment transactions.’
Gemalto, a Dutch firm, has been working on this technology for a long time and says authenticating a payment with a fingerprint is more secure than a four-digit PIN.
Chipmaker Gemalto launched its first biometric card in 2018 which was rolled-out to debit card customers for the Bank of Cyprus.
This also includes the ability to authenticate payments with a fingerprint and was used for both contactless and card machine payments
Gemalto executive vice president of banking and payment, Bertrand Knopf said: ‘Using biometrics for contactless payments is a natural move as it fits in naturally with the gesture used to pay.
‘It allows a better user experience, enabling higher transaction amounts without entering a PIN while benefiting from the convenience of contactless.’
Gemalto’s cards are the same as any other bank card, with the only notable difference being the presence of a small sensor on the right hand-side.
For biometric cards, little of the existing payment infrastructure needs to change.
Customers need only register their fingerprint using a device which will allow them to do it anywhere.
4 thoughts on “Pay With Your Fingerprint: Natwest Launches First Fingerprint Debit Card”