The technology developed at the Mastercard Labs facility in allows users to utilise biometric identifiers such as fingerprint, iris and facial recognition to verify their identity. This method facilitates the recognition of users via a mobile device during online shopping and the reduction of abandonment rates and improvement of security for banking activities.
As per Mastercard, 1 to 2% of the online transactions taking place in the Republic of Ireland require cardholder authentication to complete a transaction and the usual means to do this is through a password. This percentage is expected to reach 25% by autumn 2019, when new requirements covering authentication come into effect.
Moreover, research conducted have shown that 95% of offline transactions are approved by banks, while only 86% of online transactions are accepted by banks. Sonya Geelon, the country manager for Mastercard in Ireland, mentions that the use of password to authenticate someone is outdated, as people tend to forget them and thus, retailers face abandoned of shopping baskets. She also points out that for this reason the tendency is to move from cash to card, password to thumbprint, and even beyond to innovate technologies such as artificial intelligence.
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