Thales pitches issuers on biometric payment cards

Thales is up to 20 biometric payment card projects, and is touting the readiness of the technology, which has already reached commercial rollouts in several countries.

The company says its contactless biometric payment card is the only one fully certified by major EMV payment schemes, including Mastercard and Visa.

In a promotional video, Thales compares the technology to the relatively familiar use of fingerprint biometrics on smartphones to replace PINs for device unlocking, app access or payments. The benefits of biometric cards for payments over the contactless limit and fighting fraud in social benefits payments are reviewed, and Thales notes that the size of the fingerprint sensor makes the cards easy to use. Thales also promotes its at-home biometric enrollment sleeve, as well as the in-branch enrollment option, urging issuers: “Delight your customers. Go for biometrics.”

“After a trial of the Thales biometric payment card and its positive outcome, we have now opened the offer to all our customers with confidence,” says Jean-Marie Dragon, head of Payments and Cards for BNP Paribas, which recently launched its biometric payment card to commercial production. “This premium solution addresses several challenges such as convenience, safety and contactless. A simple yet rigorous enrollment process has been set in the branch so the biometric data never leaves the card. This is a key pre-requisite as we take the privacy of our customers’ data very seriously.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the Tech sector to develop touchless solutions and has indirectly resulted in higher transaction levels being processed without a second authentication factor,” explains Thales SVP of Banking and Payment Solutions Bertrand Knopf. “The biometric payment card allows contactless payment for any amount while safeguarding the privacy of this very personal data.”

Article Topics

biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  contactless biometrics  |  data protection  |  financial services  |  fingerprint recognition  |  fraud prevention  |  privacy  |  secure transactions  |  Thales