SmartMetric is a technology engineering, research and development company that has developed miniture electronic systems and software for use in the field of Biometric identification and validation for the payments industry as well as the Corporate and Government sectors.

The compnay’s new biometric credit card, that is expected to be unveiled in the next few weeks, represents a new way to protect online transactions building on the SmartMetric’s “inside-the-card” miniature fingerprint scanner.

The SmartMetric biometric credit/debit card is designed specifically for use with Chip Cards. Inside the SmartMetric biometric card is a fully functional fingerprint scanner that uses the cardholders pre-stored fingerprint inside the card to match and then activate the card based on the cardholder’s fingerprint biometrics.

Using the biometric technology that is built into the credit/debit card, a card users fingerprint is used to unlock the card as it is inserted into a card reader at a retail store or an ATM. By simply touching the card, the cardholders fingerprint is instantly scanned and matched with the pre-stored fingerprint inside the card. In less than a second the users biometrics are scanned and matched allowing the card to then function as it is inserted into the card reader.

SmartMetric contracted an independent market research company. Results of the research show that 80% of existing credit card users surveyed said they are concerned about credit card and identity fraud. The same research found that over 60% of the surveyed credit card users would pay USD 69.95 for a biometric secured credit card from their bank.