Feitian and Fingerprint Cards partner as payment card made with Idex Biometrics certified by UnionPay

Feitian has formed a partnership with one leading biometrics company and reached a milestone along with another one.

Fingerprint Cards and Feitian have entered into a global licensing agreement for software platforms for payments and access control from FPC, as well as a volume order of FPC touch sensors. The agreement will result in the development of biometric payment cards and access devices such as physical access cards and FIDO-enabled devices for logical access, according to a company announcement.

“We chose biometric technology from Fingerprints as they have the leading full system solution on the market and a proven cutting-edge biometric performance, which is of highest importance to both cards and access devices,” says Feitian Vice President Yan Yan.

Feitian says its biometric card offering integrating FPC’s touch sensor and biometric software has been selected for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as an “excellent innovation design.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with FEITIAN and to see our superior biometric sensors and software continuing to gain new ground within the payments and access markets, as there is an increased demand for convenient, secure and trusted biometric solutions,” says Michel Roig, SVP Business Line Payments & Access at Fingerprint Cards.

The dual-interface biometric payment card from Feitian features dual interface technology from Idex Biometrics, and has been successfully certified by the Bank Card Testing Center (BCTC) for China UnionPay requirements.

UnionPay is the largest card network in the world, with more than 7 billion cards issued, according to the announcement.

BCTC Beijing is a widely accredited facility for international third-party testing and certification, and the new certification includes tests of card structure robustness, security, and biometric performance. Hardware, software and an algorithm provided by Idex were all tested during the process.

Any issuer can now work with Feitian to issue China UnionPay cards, which paves the way for broad market adoption, Idex Biometrics claims. Feitian supplies more than 6,000 customers in more than 100 countries, including over 200 banks.

“This is a significant achievement for IDEX and our partner FEITIAN to have the first biometric payment card tested by BCTC to the China UnionPay specification,” Idex Biometrics CEO Vince Graziani comments. “UnionPay is the highest volume payment card network in the world. This certification is the result of over a year’s collaboration and work between IDEX and FEITIAN and represents a major milestone on the path to global adoption of biometric payment cards.”

“The total addressable market for biometric payment cards is 8.2 billion units and growing,” Graziani adds.

Graziani recently told Biometric Update in his first industry interview since taking over the company that his role is to take the company’s new strategy and technology “into full commercial mode and really start to ramp the business.”

“We are pleased to be the first card manufacturer to have a biometric payment card tested to China UnionPay’s exacting standards,” Feitian’s Yan said in a separate press release. “Our ability to complete this major milestone validates our decision to choose the IDEX solution and is an important step in our continued cooperation. We are looking forward to the next phase of moving to commercialization of biometric smartcards for our new and existing customers.”

Idex Biometrics and Feitian have a business relationship extending back to last August, when they formed a partnership to provide a supply chain solution for smartcard manufacturers to make biometric cards.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  certification  |  Feitian Technologies  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Idex Biometrics  |  stocks