Another Old Friend Joins Visa Biometric Card Trial

“The trial involves biometric technology provided by Fingerprint Cards and Precise Biometrics.”

Kona I has joined in on Visa’s American trial of biometric payment card technology with Mountain America Credit Union. The firm has announced that it has come onboard as a card supplier for the project.

The trial was announced last month, and will see the organizations test contactless payment cards designed to scan users’ fingerprints during transactions, allowing for security that is more sophisticated than PIN entry while still allowing for the convenience of tap-to-pay transactions. The trial involves biometric technology provided by Fingerprint Cards and Precise Biometrics.

Incidentally, Fingerprint Cards had itself partnered with Kona I on biometric smart cards back in 2016, and the partners followed through with multiple new biometric card models a year later. In September of last year, the companies supplied their payment card solution, featuring algorithm software from Precise Biometrics, to travel management firm AirPlus.

Now, the Visa trail provides an even stronger platform for the firms’ technology. Meanwhile, Visa has partnered with Gemalto and Zwipe in a concurrent European trial with Bank of Cyprus, suggesting that the financial services firm is weighing rival technological solutions ahead of larger-scale commercial deployments of biometric payment cards.

Source: The Korea Herald

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February 14, 2018 – by Alex Perala