Mastercard tests palm and facial biometrics on a large scale

Mastercard has announced that it has launched the first pilots of its dedicated biometric payment programme. First tested in Brazil, this technology should be widely extended by the card network, which has given this programme a global scope to capitalise on a trend that has already seen the number of contactless biometric users double in 5 years.

FACTS

• The first pilot launched by Mastercard is currently taking place in Sao Paulo in 5 supermarkets of the St Marche chain, in partnership with Payface (for the technology).

• Journey:

  • the cardholder can enrol in the programme from home or at a point of sale, from Payface's mobile application or that of the merchant;

  • Enrolment involves registering palm or facial prints, which are then tokenised; and choosing the default payment card used;

  • For each transaction, the customer simply presents his or her face or hand in front of the Payface biometric reader.

CHALLENGES

• Large-scale pilots: Mastercard has been experimenting with biometric payment at the point of sale for a long time. What distinguishes its initiative today is the scale of the device, which should soon be tested in Asia, the Middle East and the United States. For this, Mastercard has signed agreements with NEC, Fujitsu, Aurus, PaybyFace and PopID.

• These are ambitious projects to avoid the disintermediation of the card in an increasingly "transparent" payment context: Mastercard is already planning to integrate this technology into loyalty programmes, so that customers can be offered personalised offers when they go to the checkout, which they will validate by presenting their biometric fingerprint. In the long term, Mastercard also believes that biometrics will be essential for securing transactions in the metaverse.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• According to several studies cited by Mastercard, 74% of consumers have a positive feeling about biometrics. According to Juniper, the contactless biometrics market is estimated to be worth $18.6 billion by 2026. And 1.4 billion people could be using it by 2025, more than twice the number of users in 2020.

• Perhaps the best known competitor to Mastercard in this area is Amazon, which has deployed Amazon one at Whole Foods and AXS, among others.