Sthaler trialing biometric payment solution with Visa Europe Collab and Worldpay

Sthaler is currently trialing its Fingopay biometrics payment solution with Visa Europe Collab and Worldpay, which enables consumers to authenticate payments using their unique finger vein patterns, according to a report by IT Pro.

Both WorldPay and Visa Europe Collab are currently undergoing a three-week trial, which is designed to test the feasibility and value of Sthaler’s Fingopay reader in a high volume transaction retail environment.

Worldpay staff is currently testing the system in a restaurant located at WorldPay’s London headquarters, while hundreds of Europe Visa Collab employees are testing the technology internally.

The Fingopay reader works by shining a near-infrared light through the user’s finger, which illuminates the finger veins before capturing the final image.

Users can then register the unique finger vein pattern against their preferred payment method, at which point the pattern is encrypted into a public key token.

When the user makes a purchase at a point-of-sale terminal, the Fingopay reader compares their vein pattern with the registered template. If the two patterns successfully match, the sale is authenticated.

Sthaler’s finger vein payment solution uses Hitachi’s VeinID technology, which Sthaler has licensed under a 10-year renewable agreement.

“Our ultimate goal is to make payments even safer, even simpler and more reliable,” said Sthaler CEO Nicholas Dryden. “The benefit of working with Visa Europe Collab and Worldpay is that we have access to some of the best commercial minds in payments. This will help us to better understand how we can make finger vein technology even more convenient and secure for both merchants and consumers.”

Dryde said the print is highly unique, with only a one in 34 billion chance that two individuals share the exact same finger vein pattern.

The authentication procedure is also non-latent, which ensures that there is zero trace of an individual’s biometric template stored on the database due to the finger veins being inside the body.

The finger vein scan — which takes less than 10 seconds to set up — does not require multiple touches or angles of scans to establish.

With offices in London’s Tech City, Tel Aviv and Berlin, Visa Europe Collab is an international community of partners and innovators that aims to research and develop innovative payment solutions.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric payment system  |  biometrics  |  finger vein  |  Hitachi  |  Sthaler  |  Visa  |  WorldPay