Infographic of the Month

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Biometric Card Payments

- Hitika Gupta, Lead, Relationship Management, NPCI

Biometric is a form of identification that recognises and analyses an individual based on their physical and behavioural traits. These include fingerprints, eye retina and iris scanning, voice recognition, facial patterns, and body movement, including gait.

Biometric Card itself is an innovative, payment card technology that provides a secure way of authentication for cardholders at the point-of-sale (POS) with fingerprint — as an alternative to PIN or signature. Additionally, it works with current merchant point-of-sale terminals – no need for hardware or software upgrade.

How it works?

During a transaction, the embedded sensor captures and matches the cardholder's fingerprint to the digital template stored on the card. The cardholder's biometric data does not leave the card at any point, as the biometric capture and match is done entirely on the card. If the match is successful, the transaction is authenticated and there is no need for the cardholder to provide a PIN or signature.

Similar to digital wallets, the Biometric Card can be used for paying above the terminal’s contactless limit without the need for a PIN or signature. The card can do a biometric ‘capture and compare’ entirely on the card. The results of the biometric match are shared with the issuer as part of the authorisation request.

Biometric Cards Benefits

For Issuers:

• Increased transaction approvals— reduces declines due to forgotten or mistaken PINs
• Extra security at the POS for contactless transactions as it is a two-factor authentication and a way to avoid touching the terminal even for contact transactions
• Differentiate card offerings by including innovative biometric technology
• Reduced operational cost - reduction of customer service inquiries from erroneous security declines

For Cardholders:

• Fast and easy transactions—there is no need to enter a PIN for high-value transactions
• Additional layer of security that can help address concerns about the card or PIN theft
• Security of knowing that your issuer can confirm it’s you for every transaction, meaning greater confidence when using the card—especially when travelling
• Convenience via intuitive technology that aligns with existing biometric verification technology for digital payments

For Merchants:

• Higher value purchases without pausing for PIN or signature
• No delays caused by the situation when cardholders fumbling for their PIN
• Potentially more approvals at the POS, due to greater issuer confidence in the transaction
• Enables merchants to know with greater certainty that the person using the card is the genuine cardholder

Biometric Card – User Journey – Merchant View

• Merchant provides purchase details and submits it to the terminal - as they do today.
• Cardholder places their thumb on the sensor built into the card, then taps the card or inserts it into the EMV terminal. A new digital image of the cardholder’s thumbprint is created on the card, using power from the terminal.
• The thumbprint image is compared against the stored digital template on the card. The match results are sent to the EMV chip, and the transaction data is sent to the issuer in the authorisation request.
• Issuer receives the chip data indicating whether the biometric match was successful or failed. The issuer uses this data to help make its approval decision and the merchant receives an authorisation response.