The company is testing the biometric card, which has an inbuilt fingerprint sensor, in South Africa, but hopes it can be rolled out in the UK in coming months. When the card is performing a payment, a shopper places the end of their finger on the sensor to confirm their identity. The card will also not require any upgrades to be made to existing payment terminals at shops. Mastercard said that the UK-based banks are interested in adopting the technology and talks are underway.
Since 2014, there has been talk about biometrics payment cards rolling out in Britain that would let you pay with a touch of your finger. Banks and retailers are keen to avoid long queues forming at checkouts, as the PSD2 will mean customers will have to enter their PIN more frequently to make payments.
However, a pilot in the UK is yet to be confirmed. It also plans to introduce a biometric authentication app, which would allow shoppers to approve online payments and transactions with a selfie or a fingerprint using their phone.
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