Payments go biometric: A closer look at success factors and enabling technology innovations

As we move towards a cashless society shaped by digital payments, the need to protect our digital identities and transactions has never been more important. Biometric payment cards are a promising development in this space with fingerprint authentication rapidly gaining popularity among both banks and customers. It is expected that biometric capabilities will greatly accelerate the uptake of contactless payment cards in general.

The global market for biometric cards is on the threshold of an upturn. This trend is reflected in growing user traction, with 77 percent of consumer respondents who use biometrics on their smartphone or tablet already reporting that they are satisfied with the use of biometric identity authentication. Furthermore, frictionless consumer journey through several novel features implemented on the new generation of biometric payment card is established as another key for the uptake.

Authentication and more …

Besides the obvious benefits of identification based on unique physical traits, biometric cards offer a wide range of other advantages. They enable a much more convenient user experience. Two-factor authentication could remove the low cap on many contactless transactions, extending the reach of rapid payment processing to all kinds of purchases. It posts even added value for extended use cases like crypto wallet, or Tap2Phone for eCommerce. Two-factor authentication can also increase peace of mind, as it adds a barrier for lost or stolen biometric cards against being easily used by others.  In addition, many cardholders are attracted by the hygiene factor as they no longer have to touch the POS terminal to enter their personal PIN.

But it’s not just the biometric element that makes these cards so appealing to users. The cardholder’s fingerprint is extracted and matched on a single Secure Element, where the biometric credentials are also securely stored. This means that fingerprint credentials do not need to be stored on a backend server or centralized database. This enhances data protection and privacy.

So with the potential of biometric cards, what’s holding the market back? Let’s take a look at the success factors that are set to drive the popularity of biometric authentication in card payments in the near future.

Key success factors for wider adoption

Rollout and widescale uptake of biometric cards hinges on three key success factors:

• Ease of implementation within existing card production process – with just minor adaptations
• Cards must be reliable, robust, and long-lasting
• Simple, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly card enrollment options

Paving the way for the future of biometric payments

Companies such as Infineon Technologies are offering innovative secured payment solutions that tick all these boxes by combining manufacturability with reliability, security and flexible onboarding. The company is set to expand its market-proven and trusted suite of SECORA™ Pay solutions with SECORA Pay Bio to specifically address the needs of the fast-emerging biometric payment card market. This all-in-one pre-certified payment solution integrates Infineon’s enhanced SLC39B system-on-chip (SoC) Secure Element and Fingerprints‘  FPC1323 sensor, into the Infineon Biometric Coil on Module (BCoM) package, thus leveraging the major advantages of inductive coupling technology. This extensive, multi-layer hardware integration brings ease of production to manufacturers. SECORA Pay Bio makes biometric payment cards as simple and efficient to make as standard dual-interface payment cards – with the added bonus of extremely low failure rates. Integration of the Secure Element (which acts like a vault keeping the user’s credentials safe on the card) with the fingerprint sensor in a single package also makes a significant contribution to the robustness and long-term reliability of biometric payment cards. Deployment is further simplified by compatibility with existing production equipment and pre-approvals according to international payment networks.

Not forgetting the user experience: SECORA Pay Bio offers best-in-class contactless performance so cardholders can enjoy the full speed and convenience promised by biometric smart cards. And it supports various enrollment options so issuers and users can use a pre-provisioned sleeve, a smartphone app or in-field transaction to capture fingerprint images. In fact, Infineon recently teamed up with petaFuel, based on their innovative payment product VIMpay, and AUSTRIACARD to launch a real-life pilot project in the field, demonstrating just how easy and frictionless it is for users to enroll with SECORA Pay Bio.

This pioneering global user experience (UX) study gave users the option of in-field enrollment at the point-of-sales (PoS) (also known as silent enrollment) and NFC enrollment supported by the innovative enrollment sheet that offered an easy and convenient enrollment experience in the user’s own home – all they needed was the NFC function on their cellphones. Smart phone enrollment makes the need for a sleeve device obsolete, which is typically designed and produced for single use only. With the in-field enrollment option, the user’s fingerprint is captured in different stores when the user starts using the card to authenticate payments. After a set number of transactions, the captured fingerprint credentials are automatically registered with the card. Infineon’s thorough preparation of this UX pilot project enabled a large volume of anonymous data on user behavior to be gathered, providing valuable insights to facilitate further improvements to the company’s biometric payment card offering.

Innovations such as SECORA Pay Bio are helping to bridge the all-important gap between rising demand for contactless transactions offering a convenient and trusted user experience and the need for fast and scalable banking card project rollout with a reliable and cost-efficient product.

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Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  Infineon  |  SECORA Pay Bio