Employees of UK-based payment processor Worldpay are taking part in a three week proof-of-concept trial to evaluate the use of finger vein technology (FVT) to authenticate payments at the point-of-sale without the need for a card.
The pilot has been put in place by innovation hub Visa Europe Collab and biometric startup Sthaler at Worldpay’s London headquarters. Its aim is to test the feasibility and value of Fingopay, Sthaler’s FVT payment solution.
“Fingopay is a cloud-based cardholder identification solution that secures payments that benefit both the merchant and customer,” Visa Europe Collab says. “At the POS, all you need is your finger. Employees taking part in the trial will be able to register their Visa credit or debit card to their finger vein template, which is encrypted and stored securely.
“When paying for an item in the staff restaurant, authentication will occur via the use of a FVT reader referenced against tokenized biometric data at the POS, with no card required. Finger vein pattern is an advanced biometric factor, which, unlike other physical characteristics, cannot be scanned without the knowledge of the individual and cannot be left for duplication as it is non-latent.”
Customer experience
“The use of biometrics as a layer of cardholder verification in payments has attracted a lot of attention,” says Nick Telford-Reed, director of technology innovation at Worldpay. “The research we are piloting aims to investigate how biometric technology such as Fingopay can be integrated simply to improve customer experience and payments security.”
“Our ultimate goal is to make payments even safer, even simpler and more reliable,” adds Nicholas Dryden, CEO of Sthaler. “The benefit of working with Visa Europe Collab and Worldpay is that we have access to some of the best commercial minds in payments. This will help us to better understand how we can make finger vein technology even more convenient and secure for both merchants and consumers.”
Worldpay is also conducting trials of a facial biometric verification system for payments in stores using a prototype device that includes an upward-facing camera embedded into a POS terminal.
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