Visa says palm biometric payments have promising future

Payments giant Visa showcased its pay-by-palm biometric payment technology at an event marking the transformation of its Singapore Innovation Center last week. During the event, visitors were invited to use the palm reader and link their signature to their payment card for a transaction.

“The future of biometric payments is promising and is set to revolutionize the retail experience,” says Kunal Chatterjee, Head of Innovation at Visa Asia Pacific.

The technology is still relatively nascent and most likely won’t become mass market for a while, he adds. Various factors influence the acceptance of biometric payments, including regulation, technology and consumer acceptance which often depends on the market.

“However, the current pace of integration and acceptance of new technologies that we are seeing is very encouraging, and we expect to see biometric payments becoming more mainstream within the next decade,” Chatterjee told Singaporean tech news site Hardwarezone.

Visa first previewed its palm payment technology in 2015.

The year 2023 saw some progress in advancing palm-based payments. Amazon Web Service introduced its retail-focused palm payment system Amazon One in 200 locations across the U.S. The company is also hoping that more organizations will adopt its palm ID authentication system One Enterprise.

Over in China, WeChat Pay has partnered up with the Beijing Subway to allow palm-based payments on the high-speed Daxing International Airport Line.

According to Chatterjee, some of the main benefits of biometric payments for Visa lie in offering more personalized, simpler and secure shopping.

Visa showcased other payment and retail technologies in its Singapore Innovation Center, originally opened in 2016. These include augmented reality (AR) virtual shopping combined with predictive AI as well as business decision-making based on data.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  palm biometrics  |  Visa