French bank BNP Paribas will begin rolling out in the fall the first tranche of payment cards where customers can authorize a payment using their fingerprint. Up to 15,000 cards are involved initially, reserved for Premier and Gold customers of the French bank.
The time-honored PIN code is disappearing bit by bit. The advent of contactless payment has decimated the number of physically keyed-in PINs. On top of that came mobile payments, which work mostly by fingerprint or facial recognition. But payment cards with high-quality biometric security, that's not yet commonplace despite trial runs at various banks. Nor will it be for now, but at least BNP Paribas is preparing to launch it.
The idea is as simple as it is complex. Authorization of a payment is done by placing a preset finger on a fingerprint sensor. This, of course, involves a bit of technology. Partly responsible for the development is Fingerprint Cards, a Swedish company specializing in biometric systems. BNP Paribas is also collaborating on the project with Gemalto, a French company also active in the production of payment cards.
A payment card with a fingerprint sensor can be considered particularly secure. Whereas a regular PIN can still be extracted in various devious ways, this is virtually impossible with a fingerprint. Another advantage - which has been particularly topical in recent months - is that it is no longer necessary for people to touch a device. As long as there is no cure for corona, preventing infections remains very relevant.
