Mastercard to launch biometric payments in Europe

Mastercard plans to launch a biometric payments solution later this year, according to senior staff.  Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise security solutions at MasterCard, confirmed the launch in London on Thursday. “The future is moving towards biometrics… which we will be launching in Europe this year. 

The second thing is tokenisation for a number of cards,” he said at Risk to Reward 2015 in London, reported Business Reporter. MasterCard has been working with Apple Pay to develop a tokenisation system for transactions, reports the magazine.  

“We believe that by taking all these steps we will make the system more secure,” Bhalla said. “If a card is compromised it is the token which is compromised not the number on the card.” Last November, MasterCard outlined plans for a new authentication standard designed to end the use of passwords in online payments, saying that the protocol could be released as early as next year. 

The firm says the new standard, which is being developed in cooperation with Visa, will move security infrastructure beyond the PC era, “supporting emerging technologies and changing consumer needs”. As reported by Planet Biometrics last October, MasterCard is working with Norwegian firm Zwipe on a credit card featuring a fingerprint scanner. 

The company is also working with Bionym and the Royal Bank of Canada on trials of the former’s Nymi wristband, which uses cardiac rhythms to authenticate users.  - See more at: http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/2998/desc/mastercard-to-launch-biometric-payments-in-europe/?