Idemia, Zwipe, Idex join forces on next-gen biometric payment cards to lower cost

Idemia is launching the second generation of its FCode biometric card, which will be the first made with Idex Biometrics’ TrustedBio fingerprint sensor, according to an announcement from Idex.

The cards are coming soon, Idemia says in a Tweet (now unavailable) accompanied by a video depicting the cards’ options for at-home enrollment with a battery sleeve or in a branch using the issuer’s system, and contact or contactless payments.

Idex VP of Software Engineering Guido Bertocci says in a congratulatory Tweet that the combination of TrustedBio with Idemia and Zwipe’s BioSE results in “the most highly integrated biometric card with the fewest components, lowest cost and fastest performance.”

The cost benefits of TrustedBio were explained to Biometric Update by Idex Biometrics CTO Anthony Eaton on the product’s unveiling in February of 2020.

FCode integrates Zwipe Pay ONE, and the first generation card has already reached the trial stage for commercial launches.

A tie up between Idemia, Idex and Zwipe on FCode biometric payment cards (along the way the card has also been styled ‘F-Code’ and ‘F.code’) was announced last year, in the culmination of a series of deals including a $4 million partnership struck in 2019 and even Idemia’s roots in Safran Identity & Security.

“We are excited to see our customer and partner, IDEMIA, begin to market cards based on our third generation sensor family, TrustedBio,” comments Idex CEO, Vince Graziani. “This product introduction represents a major milestone for both partners and raises the bar for efficient biometric card architecture.”

Shipments of TrustedBio SoCs began last August.

Article Topics

biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  F.CODE  |  fingerprint sensors  |  IDEMIA  |  Idex Biometrics  |  secure transactions  |  Zwipe