NatWest said to be planning pilot for biometric debit card

UK bank NatWest is reportedly looking to launch a test pilot for biometric fingerprint debit cards for 200 customers.

The test is expected to commence in the coming weeks and will enable consumers to verify payments over £30 by holding their finger over the card’s in-built scanner, various reports in the media claim. This solution will enable UK consumers to conduct a contactless payment for more than £30 and not have to use their PIN code.

There have been a number of financial institutions around the world taking an interest into biometrics with fingerprint payment cards receiving a good chunk of interest.

At the start of 2019, Russian bank Sberbank established a partnership with the supermarket chain Azbuka Vkusa which will let its account holders pay through biometric POS terminals. Initially, there are 20 supermarkets which have these terminals, but more releases are in the pipeline.

Late last year, Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo formed a partnership with biometrics software developer Fingerprints in order to pilot a contactless payment card with in-built fingerprint verification. The card will be the first of its kind to be tested in Italy and is being made in partnership with MasterCard, Gemalto and Zwipe.

While there is a lot of potential through biometric payments, there are some risks. In a recent study from New York University researchers, it found machine learning technology is capable of faking fingerprints on partial finger scanners.

The issue arises when a scanner only needs a small section of the finger to verify the identity of the user. It is a lot easier to fake a fingerprint when only a section is needed, as these are less distinctive compared to a wider fingerprint.

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