MasterCard wants to put its fingerprint on the next contactless payment option — literally. The company announced Friday (Oct. 17) it has partnered with Norwegian firm Zwipe to add a built-in fingerprint sensor to contactless payment cards.
The technology turns a consumers fingerprint into a PIN number, which enables the cardholder to make payments outside of the low-value restrictions often applied to contactless transaction. Data is stored directly on the card as opposed to a external database with intention of ensuring better security.
This partnership launch follows MasterCard’s success with another Norwegian company, Sparebanken DIN.
“Response to our pilot with Sparebanken DIN has been very positive. Cardholders love how easy the card is to use with the added security feature. We have also had exceptionally good reaction from retailers participating in the pilot. This pilot enabled the partners to gather valuable customer feedback, experience and best practice for the enrolment and deployment phase,” Kim Humborstad, founder and CEO of Zwipe told finextra.
Zwipe’s innovation with this next generation of card will follow a traditional card design that will work with all payment terminals for release in 2015. That technology will use energy for payment terminals without using a battery.
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