MasterCard and First Tech Developing Biometrics Program.

Later this year, members will be able to authenticate and verify transactions using biometrics under a pilot program involving $7.3 billion First Tech Federal Credit Union of Mountain View, Calif., and MasterCard.

“We are extremely pleased that MasterCard has chosen to partner with First Tech to pilot new payment methods. Biometrics may seem very James Bond-like, but the reality is fraudsters are very clever and resourceful,” said Terry Rodrick, vice president of cards and payments at First Tech.

“Our membership is technology based so I think we have the perfect population to really kick the tires and pressure test new ways of making purchases,” she said.

First Tech and MasterCard had already established a relationship that made MasterCard the payment solutions provider for its 380,000 members. As an element of that agreement, the credit union will issue new credit and debit cards with embedded EMV technology as a defense against fraud. It will then follow up with new features and functions, including a new rewards program, card personalization and tokenization programs.

Rodrick pointed out that new data breaches or account compromises make headlines every day so security is a top concern with membership.

“We take the mission of protecting their privacy and security very seriously, which is part of the reason we chose MasterCard as the new association for our card's program. (We’re) taking the migration to EMV one step further by implementing chip and PIN versus chip and signature,” she said.

With regard to the scale of the pilot, Rodrick explained that the credit union will reveal more as the project scope further develops. According to MasterCard, the process will use a combination of facial and voice recognition and fingerprint matching

“For sure we will include First Tech employees as potential Beta testers and then we will have to determine what might be the right number and types of scenarios to validate in the marketplace,” she said.

Rodrick explained that the credit union's members thrive in these types of scenarios, since its headquarters are located in the center of the Silicon Valley. So she expects no shortage of volunteers, she said.

The pilot was announced in conjunction with MasterCard's plans to invest more than $20 million in cybersecurity related technology enhancements for cardholders, merchants and issuing financial institutions. This includes the spring launch of MasterCard Safety Net, which is designed to reduce the risk of fraud before issuers and processors might notice the threat.

According to MasterCard, Safety Net provides an independent layer of security on top of the tools and policies of financial institutions, by monitoring and blocking specific transactions based on selected criteria.