Biometric payments project launched in Kazan, Russia

The authorities of the city of Kazan, a center of Russian petrochemical production, has officially launched biometric face payment via the Russian national payment card system (NSPK). This is the first stage of the full-scale introduction of biometric acquiring in the Russian transport sector. By the end of the year, the technology is planned to be expanded to stores and restaurants.

According to an official spokesman of the press service of the NSPK, so far, terminals for biometric payment have already been placed at all stations of the Kazan metro. The biometric technology was developed by the Center for Biometric Technologies (CBT, which is the operator of Russia’s Unified Biometric System), and its payment processing speed does not exceed several seconds.

In order to make payment, Kazan residents will only need to take a selfie in the State Services Biometrics application, according to the Russian Ministry of Digital Development. After this, these data to should be linked to a bank account in mobile app. In the future, each payment will be made “at a glance” — without any additional actions on the part of the client.

A spokesman of Maksut Shadaev, Russia’s Minister of Digital Development, says that in the future, this payment method can be used not only in the metro, but also, for example, in stores that have special equipment.

At the initial stage the new service will be available to clients of nine Russian banks after which the list of participants will be significantly expanded.

Also, by the end of November 2024, NSPK intends to expand its biometric payment technology to stores, restaurants and other trade and service enterprises, said the company’s CEO Dmitry Dubynin.

By the end of the year, the biometric payment service will be launched in other large cities of Russia, such as Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, and Samara, and in 2025 — in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

Russia already has a biometric acquiring system — the “Payment with a smile” service from Sberbank, but only its clients can use the technology. At present it operates more than 700,000 biometric terminals in stores, restaurants, and other enterprises, and by the end of the year their number will grow to 1 million, according to the Bank.

As for Sberbank, the Bank also puts big hopes on the introduction of biometric technology in the Russian transport sector. As Dmitry Malykh, senior vice-president of the Bank told in an interview with the Russian Izvestia business paper, currently Sberbank tests its biometric technology for payments in metro of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, considering its launch in other cities of Russia in Q4 and 2025. In addition, the Bank plans to launch an interbank biometric payment service on its own infrastructure in December — it will be available to clients of the Russian Mir payment system.

This is the first major project which involves the use of biometrics technologies both in and beyond the Russian transport sector. While since 2019 the Moscow Metro has been using biometrics, this system operates on a local and isolated infrastructure.

Russian analysts believe with the connection of other players to the biometric acquiring system and its expanding into restaurants and stores, the popularity and accessibility of the system will grow. However, as analysts believe, Russian people have still serious fears about digitalization.

According to Viktor Dostov, chairman of the Russian Council of the Association of Participants in the Electronic Money and Money Transfers Market. in the Russian Federation, there is a traditional distrust of biometrics, which hinders the development of such projects as those implemented by NSPK. As he also added while this technology may be well received in certain niches (pass systems and transport), but in general, most Russians are not inclined to trust it.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  Center for Biometric Technologies  |  face biometrics  |  Russia  |  selfie biometrics  |  transportation  |  Unified Biometrics System