Societe Generale removes contactless transaction cap for trial of IDEMIA biometric payment cards

The improved security provided by fingerprint biometrics is allowing French multinational bank Societe Generale to remove the amount limit on contactless payments as it begins experiments with IDEMIA’s biometric bank card, an announcement by IDEMIA has confirmed.

IDEMIA cites CB bank card group research that forecasts french payment card users will conduct nearly 2 billion contactless transactions in 2018. The card also functions normally for all in-store contact payments, internet transactions, and withdrawals.

The announcement also confirms that Societe Generale is using IDEMIA’s F.CODE. The F.CODE solution, with an integrated Fingerprint Cards FPC1300-series fingerprint sensor, is also undergoing a trial on Japan’s leading payment network. No fingerprint data is transmitted to the merchant or the bank, with the fingerprint template storage and matching taking place directly on the card.

The Societe Generale trial was originally announced in October, and the bank was reported to be considering removing the €30 contactless payment cap.

Article Topics

banking  |  biometric cards  |  F.CODE  |  fingerprint authentication  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  IDEMIA