(23 January 2018 – Europe) From April, online shoppers across Europe will be able to use biometrics, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, to identify themselves at the checkout when they pay with Mastercard.
According to the credit card giant, 93 percent of consumers prefer using their fingerprints or faces over passwords for validating payments, while 92 percent of bankers also want to adopt biometrics.
Mastercard Identity Check, which lets people use biometric identifiers, such as fingerprint, iris and facial recognition to verify their identity using a mobile device during online shopping and banking activities, is already available in 37 countries.
But with new EU regulatory requirements on authentication coming into force through PSD2, the Mastercard says that banks across the continent must offer the biometric option by April 2019.
Javier Perez, president, Mastercard Europe, says: “Biometric technologies perfectly match consumers’ expectations of getting the secure payment solutions of tomorrow, in line with the increased digitalisation of lifestyles. This can significantly benefit consumers, retailers and banks by improving the purchase experience and better securing the transaction.”
The news coincides with recently released research from East & Partners Asia that found that preference for biometric authentication was quickly gaining traction and momentum among the Top 1000 companies (by revenue) across Asia.
According to the research, nearly a third of all large corporates across Asia believe biometric authentication is far more secure than current technology and expect to use it in the near future – a big jump up from the 3.2 percent who currently use it.