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Imagine a world where contact was the norm. To settle a purchase whether, by cash or payment card, a person has to come in contact or at the very least get into each other’s personal space at the cash counter. Now interject the word “social distancing” into the world. Suddenly your cash and your payment cards have taken on an ominous avatar. On an average, depending on the denomination, a currency bill circulates among people for 8 – 15 years. The number of hands the bill that has passed through is unimaginable. Then there are the POS machines and the ATM terminals, where the risk of infection is the highest. And so, this is when the change of guard happens. An era belonging to the contactless biometric card is been ushered into a world where social distancing has become the new norm.

And the world adjusts, albeit, uneasily into the newly changed etiquettes of society. Contactless payments are changing the landscape of commodity purchases by becoming the numero uno in payments & deliveries. Due to the fast-spreading character of Covid-19 just by contact on surfaces, it has created an interest in contactless biometric payment solutions. Even though the banks are increasing the cap on contactless payment cards, there is a section of skeptics. They fear they might fall prey to the fraudsters who will be out to take advantage of the higher payment ceiling. But these fears can be allayed by adding a contactless biometric security feature to the card. This will be in the form of the user’s fingerprint. The user’s fingerprint acts as the PIN and the payment goes through after the identity is authenticated and verified – at a distance. Fast, Secure & Convenient.

Future is contactless biometric

Biometric payment solutions have made vast strides in fraud detection and prevention. Fast forward to a world rid of Covid-19. Contactless biometric card is going to be the premier medium of payment solution. So, the question is – Will we look at the paper currency the same way again?

Bio-idz – Your Biometrics, Your ID.

The germ of an idea involving fingerprint identification of individuals originated in the late 16th century Europe. The evolutionary journey of the fingerprint started from inking on contracts and deeds in an analog form to the digital era. Its used by law enforcement and security industries and more recently on smartphones. Above all it has made quite an impact on the biometric emv card. Once upon a time in the realm of science fiction, now contactless fingerprint emv card is a reality.

A customer’s fingerprints used as the alternative to the PIN currently existing in payment cards (emv cards). These fingerprint emv card used at the POS (Point of Sales) are at a safe and secure distance. The customer places their finger on the sensor area embedded in the card. The card scans the fingerprint and compares it with the stored digital image and if it matches, the transaction’s approved.

But this is new technology and as is wont, when it comes to the security of an individual’s hard-earned money and there are some myths associated with the fingerprint enabled fingerprint emv card. The realities associated with some of the myths laid bare below.

BIOMETRIC PAYMENTS MYTHS & REALITIES:

1) Myth: Card stores the picture of the fingerprint.
Reality: The encrypted image stored in a series of digital 1’s & 0’s and not an actual picture. So the original image can’t be reverse-engineered.

2) Myth: The biometric data shared with every merchant.
Reality: The biometric data stored on the chip and so never leaves the card

3) Myth: The battery embedded in the card needs charging periodically.
Reality: So an electromagnetic field generated by the payment terminal provides the power needed by the card.

4) Myth: If dirt or sweat clings to the biometric emv card and the transaction will fail.
Reality: If biometric verification fails after multiple attempts due to some unknown reason. And the card will switch to PIN verification to authorize the transaction.

5) Myth: If the card’s stolen/lost, all the money stolen through contactless transactions.
Reality: A PIN entered from time to time to verify whether the cardholder is genuine.

6) Myth: Payment can be accidentally triggered for someone else if walking close to the contactless payment terminal
Reality: There is no chance of ending up paying for someone else’s transaction. Because contactless biometric emv card work
only and when they are a few centimeters away from the payment terminals

The myths can go on and on but in reality, every question’s answered, and all myths demystified. In conclusion, Customers & Merchants, All hail the new kid on the digital payment block – The Contactless biometric EMV Card.