Biometric payment card market forecast for 155 percent CAGR through 2026

If 2021 was the year for technological developments for biometric payment cards, it is becoming clearer how big the iceberg may be. Following the Smart Payment Association’s report into 2022 being the year the technology goes mainstream, Mordor Intelligence has releases a market report that predicts compound annual growth of 155.45 percent from 2021 to 2026. This would take the global biometric card market’s 2020 value of US$8.75 million to $1.69 billion by 2026.

‘Global Biometric Card Market – Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 – 2026)’ considers the impact of COVID-19 as an accelerant on behavior change which could prime consumer adoption of biometric cards, most typically those with a fingerprint sensor with match-on-card capabilities to authorize payments including contactless without a PIN.

The report states that Fingerprint Cards predicts around 6 billion payment devices will be shipped every year by 2026, and almost all will be contactless. The company also foresees a total addressable market of around 3 billion biometric sensor module units per year.

Asia Pacific is tipped to see the strongest demand for biometric payment cards, despite rising smartphone use for payments, while Europe and the U.S. and Canada are predicted to have mid-level growth and Latin America, Africa and the Middle East low. (Although many of the updates towards the end of 2021 have focussed on these low growth areas.)

Other growth sectors include China Construction Bank’s collaboration with Idex Biometrics to provide biometric cards for its digital renminbi pilots.

Competition and investment are expected to surge. Vendor partnerships with technology providers for new product releases. The report cites Zwipe, Thales, Idex Biometrics, STMicroelectronics and Visa as the major players, deeming it to be a consolidated market.

Central Bank of Iraq pushes biometric payment cards, welcomes Zwipe

According to a posting by Zwipe, the firm has received strong endorsement from the Central Bank of Iraq to introduce biometric payment cards to the country.

General Manager at the Central Bank of Iraq, Duha Al Atta, is quoted as saying: “We deeply appreciate that global technology leaders [such] as Zwipe are putting immense efforts to not just introduce great innovations but building the payments ecosystem, helping all the parties in the value chain. We encourage banks to pilot innovations from Zwipe, assess the end users’ feedback and bring biometric payment cards to Iraq in 2022.”

The endorsement was first mentioned by Zwipe in mid-December when it announced details of its partnership with International Network for Cards and Digital Payment Services (INC), following the latter’s partnering with NymCard, to pilot biometric payment cards in Iraq. The first issuance is expected to be INC’s own NEO Visa cards.

Article Topics

biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Iraq  |  market report  |  secure transactions  |  Zwipe