Newsletter
The payment models of the future: biometrics and mobile phone technology
People are so attached to their bank cards – most would never go shopping without one!
This makes the relative lack of security precautions with bank cards all the more concerning. We’ve all heard about skimming in the media, but many of us now know people who’ve fallen victim to this practice. Banks are currently trialling new methods to make withdrawing cash and paying in stores safer, and one of the most promising approaches is biometric technology.
The central problem with security goes back to one of the key issues in banking: how to unequivocally verify the cardholder’s identity during a transaction. The potential of biometrics has been known for a long time, but the technology has only become suitable for practical, widespread use in the past few years – thanks to faster and more powerful computers, better cameras and improved recognition algorithms. Biometrics has made a breakthrough, and error rates are now extremely low.
In the future, we will continue to use conventional payment and withdrawal systems, but they will be expanded to include new security features. In Cologne and Berlin, GFT is currently collaborating with a large banking group in a trial involving bank cards with a digital copy of the cardholder’s fingerprint. ATMs have been modified to read fingerprint data in both cities. So far, the feedback from people taking part in the trial has been extremely good.
There’s plenty going on outside Germany, too. Projects in Africa and Asia provide an indication of the payment systems of the future. Especially in regions with poor transaction infrastructures, with neither banks nor ATMs, mobile phones are growing in importance. In fact, they’re increasingly becoming a universal tool for all kinds of transactions. Near Field Communication technology provides the necessary level of security: mobile phones have a tiny chip containing a securely encrypted PIN or the user’s fingerprint. This allows users to begin transactions by waving their mobile phone in front of a payment station (permanent or mobile).
Installing this technology in mobile phones is comparatively simple for manufacturers – so it’s only a matter of time before services like these are also launched in Europe. GFT is monitoring developments in this field closely and is involved in some very promising initial projects.
This makes the relative lack of security precautions with bank cards all the more concerning. We’ve all heard about skimming in the media, but many of us now know people who’ve fallen victim to this practice. Banks are currently trialling new methods to make withdrawing cash and paying in stores safer, and one of the most promising approaches is biometric technology.
The central problem with security goes back to one of the key issues in banking: how to unequivocally verify the cardholder’s identity during a transaction. The potential of biometrics has been known for a long time, but the technology has only become suitable for practical, widespread use in the past few years – thanks to faster and more powerful computers, better cameras and improved recognition algorithms. Biometrics has made a breakthrough, and error rates are now extremely low.
In the future, we will continue to use conventional payment and withdrawal systems, but they will be expanded to include new security features. In Cologne and Berlin, GFT is currently collaborating with a large banking group in a trial involving bank cards with a digital copy of the cardholder’s fingerprint. ATMs have been modified to read fingerprint data in both cities. So far, the feedback from people taking part in the trial has been extremely good.
There’s plenty going on outside Germany, too. Projects in Africa and Asia provide an indication of the payment systems of the future. Especially in regions with poor transaction infrastructures, with neither banks nor ATMs, mobile phones are growing in importance. In fact, they’re increasingly becoming a universal tool for all kinds of transactions. Near Field Communication technology provides the necessary level of security: mobile phones have a tiny chip containing a securely encrypted PIN or the user’s fingerprint. This allows users to begin transactions by waving their mobile phone in front of a payment station (permanent or mobile).
Installing this technology in mobile phones is comparatively simple for manufacturers – so it’s only a matter of time before services like these are also launched in Europe. GFT is monitoring developments in this field closely and is involved in some very promising initial projects.
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