Korean credit card companies developing biometrics-based offline payments system

Korean credit card companies Shinhan, BC, and Hana Card announced Sunday that they are developing a finger vein-based payment authorization solution, reports The Korea Times.

“Payment authorizations based on fingertip veins is both convenient and secure, and we forecast it will become the main biometrics authorization method for offline payments,” said a Shinhan Card spokesperson in a joint statement. “We at Shinhan, BC, and Hana Card will try to provide customers with the best service in the future ‘deviceless’ era where payments will be possible without credit cards or smartphones.”

The companies recently signed a memorandum of understanding with LG-Hitachi and NICE Information & Telecommunication to implement the system and said that the payment method would be available at convenience store chains across the country in October.

A payment system using finger veins was recently rolled out in the UK and researchers at Australia’s Edith Cowan University (ECU) are developing technology to scan fingerprints and finger veins in combination.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  finger vein  |  Korea