Natwest has unveiled a three month pilot program with Visa and Giesecke & Devrient Mobile Security to test the first biometric key fob from a UK bank for contactless payments.
According to Mobile Payments Today, the bank is a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, which has previously tested biometric payment cards, but will now test biometric fingerprint verification on fobs with 250 customers.
This test aims to examine whether biometric fingerprint scanners can authenticate payments up to USD 131, without the need for a mobile phone or bank card. The fob is meant to be used at existing chip and PIN terminals, with no need for any additional hardware. Once a customer scans the contactless fob, a light goes on at the terminal to indicate the transaction is done, while no biometric data is shared with the merchant or bank, and transactions are encrypted.
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