Biometrics cutting the line of in-person payments innovations: Mastercard

Mastercard sees biometrics for in-store payments as a part of a broader shift towards seamless interactions of all kinds, as outlined in a new episode of the payment giant’s “What’s Next In” podcast. The discussion revolves around card transactions and Mastercard’s payment technology, but the themes identified can be recognized in many different places where payments are made and in wide-ranging market developments.In-person payments have come a long way from the credit card imprinters, or “knuckle-busters,” as host Vicki Hyman notes they were popularly known, that were common to stores in the 1980s.Dennis Gamiello notes that the U.S. took until the beginning of the covid pandemic to lean into contactless payments, having lagged most of the developed world in chip card adoption. Now, over two-thirds of Mastercard payments are contactless, he says.The shift to digital transactions has made software the tool of updates to point-of-sale systems, Jennifer Marriner notes, unlike past generations of payment innovation. That allows merchants to connect payments with the rest of the retail experience, like inventory management and customer data.Consumer trust in contactless transactions and other payment innovations is rising rapidly as people become more familiar with them, according to Marriner, with payments for public transportation a ready example of where this is happening. “More taps, more trust, more tap, and that’s what we’re seeing,” she says.The discussion on this point revolved around cards, but the same is true for biometrics.Face biometrics have been implemented on the Yamaman Yukarigaoka Line in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture, The Japan Times reports, in the latest example.“Tap-on-phone” is part of the next wave of card payments, and allows merchants to “queue-bust” with sales assistants, Marriner says.Mastercard is also introducing capabilities for consumers to add payment cards to their digital wallet by tapping it on their own smartphone. Merchants can also add tapping a card to a phone holding a digital wallet as an additional authentication layer.Payments with biometrics instead of a phone or card are also on Mastercard’s roadmap. The company wants to let consumers choose how they register their payment method to their biometrics, Gamiello explains.Behavioral biometrics are also part of Mastercard’s plan, in addition to physical biometric modalities like palm and face.Gamiello explained how biometric templates work, comparing it to payment data tokenization during a discussion about consumer trust. Like contactless card transactions, adoption and use foster trust, as Mastercard survey data has consistently shown.Mastercard plans on expanding its biometric checkouts this year, and pilots are getting underway, Gamiello says.Mastercard’s Biometric Checkout Program “is where we focus on creating standards around the performance, the user experience, the security, and we do rigorous testing with partners that want to participate in the program and enable the technology so that we can collectively bring it to consumers,” he explains.Other examples of this shift towards biometrics for in-person payments abound.Wicket makes several similar points to Mastercard’s executives around integrating payments with digital services and systems and the potential for faster, more efficient transactions, but for events, in a blog post.Wicket notes that the alcohol purchases common at events are a natural place for the benefits of biometrics to carry over to another part of the transaction, in the form of age verification.Biometric payment cards are also on a path towards mainstream adoption, albeit a slower and rockier path than once expected.Idex Biometrics has received a production order for its integrated hardware and software solution Idex Pay from Taiwan’s Beautiful Card Corporation (BCC). BCC has also received a Letter of Approval (LoA) from Mastercard for its Idex Pay-based card, in a process eased by Idex’ was certification by Mastercard last year.The size of the order was not specified in the announcement, but BCC produces 121 million payment cards annually.