MasterCard piloting face, finger biometrics for transaction verification
02 July, 2015
category: Biometrics, Financial
MasterCard is looking at biometrics as a way to cut down on transaction fraud. The payment company will pilot a system that enables customer to choose between fingerprint or facial recognition to confirm a transaction, Ajay Bhalla told CNN Money.
Customers will first have to download the app on to their mobile device. Then after a consumer makes a transaction they will be asked to confirm it on their mobile device.
Customer can choose a fingerprint if they have a device with a scanner or facial recognition. Customers that choose facial recognition, stare at the phone — blink once — and the transaction is complete. Customers have to blink for proof that a photo isn’t being used to spoof the system.
The demo shown to CNN Money had the system being use to verify an online transaction but the story referenced that it could also be used in a brick and mortar environment. With EMV transactions coming to the U.S. payment companies want to add additional authentication factors as fraud will begin to heavily migrate online.
MasterCard partnered with Apple, BlackBerry, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung for the project. The credit card company is still finalizing deals with two major banks, so it wasn’t ready to say whose customers will get this first.
Banks are increasingly taking advantage of the additional security mechanisms available in mobile devices to better authenticate consumers.