Mastercard has committed to guaranteeing that all of its customers will have access to biometric authentication services by April 2019.
The company said that everyone of its consumers will be able to identify themselves with biometrics such as fingerprints or facial recognition, when they shop and pay with Mastercard. banks issuing Mastercard-branded cards will have to be able to offer biometric authentication for remote transactions, alongside existing PIN and password verification. It will also apply to all contactless transactions made at terminals with a mobile device.
With consumers having greater access to biometric ID services through smartphones and tablets, and the EU introduced regulations for stronger authentication, Mastercard has now set a deadline for the implementation.
The new Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will make a number of significant changes to the UK’s existing payment services regime, including the introduction of a legal requirement for payment service providers (PSPs) to use strong customer authentication (SCA) under certain circumstances.
Mark Barnett, president, Mastercard UK & Ireland said: “Biometric technologies perfectly meet the public’s expectation for state-of-the-art security when making a payment. This will be of great benefit to everyone: consumers, retailers and banks. It will make the purchase much smoother, and instead of having to remember passwords to authenticate, shoppers will have the chance to use a fingerprint or a picture of themselves.”
Company’s shift to biometrics is part of its new action plan to help banks and retailers to prevent fraud and improve the consumer experience in the new digital environment.
It also meets new regulatory requirements around Strong Customer Authentication set out by PSD2 and is aimed at ensuring a smoother consumer experience and reducing unjustified declines. It includes a new set of services recently designed such as Mastercard’s Decision Intelligence or Automatic Billing Updater that leverage most contemporary technologies, including artificial intelligence.
With this approach, Mastercard said it will help its partners not only to comply with requirements set out in the new PSD2 legislation, but also to go further in optimising the checkout experience of their customers.
Earlier this year, JCB, an international payment brand originating from Japan, announced plans to start trialling a biometric palm print and vein identification authentication system next month. The card brand is running the tests with Universal Robot Co and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
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