UnionPay adds biometrics support with 3DS online payment authentication for frictionless transactions

UnionPay International has expanded its e-commerce toolkit portfolio to accept biometrics and other technologies with the 3-D Secure (3DS) online payment authentication protocol for frictionless online payments, the company announced.

UnionPay 3DS not only improves compatibility as it can be applied to both web and mobile app purchases, according to the announcement, but it also provides unified standards for compliance with multiple jurisdictions and regulatory systems, and ensures various authentication options, including tokens, fingerprint and facial recognition.

Payment cards with fingerprint biometrics from Fingerprint Cards and Idex Biometrics have recently been approved by UnionPay.

The new product uses EMVCo Specifications to improve authentication for overseas transactions. Italian digital payments leader Nexi is the first European institution to have already launched the product to provide seamless and secure payments for UnionPay cardholders.

As a result, more than 7,000 registered online merchants accept UnionPay cards. Since the number of interested companies in Italy is growing, the company expects to reach 95 percent coverage in the country.

The company’s online payment business is based on the four-party business model, and 20 million online merchants from more than 200 regions accept UnionPay cards. Amid COVID-19, the company has been working on scaling online acceptance and making online payment experience frictionless.

Low-risk purchases benefit from fast authentication and a frictionless processing flow, while risky purchases will ask cardholders to go through additional authentication such as SMS and security questions to prevent fraud. Increasing purchase data will lead to faster payments in 90 percent of cases, the company says.

UnionPay 3DS has been launched in other countries by UOB in Singapore, LH Bank in Thailand, Solid Bank in Russia. Based on existing negotiations, the company predicts some 50 international organizations will launch the product this year.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  online authentication  |  secure transactions  |  UnionPay