Zwipe and Idex ink plethora of supply deals for biometric cards

Kuwait International Bank (KIB) has launched a credit service using fingerprint-scanning payment cards from Zwipe for high-net-worth customers.

The service, which uses biometric credit cards may be more widely available at some point, but right now, Visa Infinite Black (a relabeled Pay card by Zwipe) is only being pitched to KIB’s high-value clients.

Zwipe also is supplying its biometric Pay card to Taiwanese card maker Beautiful Card Corp. (BCC) for its Mastercard line. Visa a year ago gave its approval for the new card service. The cards will be produced by Lebanese firm Inkript.

The deals stand out in a market that is facing headwinds. According to the company’s most recent financial statement, growth in the sector “is undeniably slower than” the Norwegian firm would like according to Zwipe CEO Robert Puskaric.

Meanwhile, Idex Biometrics is expanding in Asia, working with doelPay, a payments systems integrator to tap the Bangladesh market for biometric cards.

DoelPay says it expects have biometric payment cards for consumers in the region before the fourth quarter. It says it is working with three of Bangladesh’s largest banks.

Citing its own statistics, doelPay says digital payments are growing at a compounded annual rate of 19 percent, with 33 million cards in circulation in the South Asian country of almost 170 million.

In yet more news of orders, Idex says it has been chosen by card maker Paragon ID to supply Paragon subsidiary Thames Technology. Thames designs, customizes, makes and distributes 250 million cards a year in 60 countries, according to Idex.

Idex also has said it is negotiating another deal with an unnamed “leading card manufacturer and payments solution provider.”

According to Idex, the company has an annual production volume of 30 million cards as well as a strong presence in the Middle East. If a deal is reached, biometric cards could be distributed in the fourth quarter.

Cuong Dung, CEO card hardware maker Linxens has reaffirmed his faith in biometric cards, citing a recent order of 1 million units placed by Infineon for SLC38 chips, which use Idex software. Linxens recently has invested in a tech center in France.

The news comes as growth seems to continue to be on the horizon for biometric cards. According to Mordor Intelligence, the market is predicted to hit $2.7 billion by 2027, compared to just $15.5 million in 2021.

Article Topics

biometric cards  |  biometrics  |  Idex Biometrics  |  Linxens  |  payments  |  Zwipe