Mastercard to enable biometric validation in Europe

This shift to biometrics also meets new regulatory requirements around strong customer authentication set out by PSD2 and is aimed at reducing unjustified declines. The financial services company says that banks across Europe must offer the biometric option by April 2019.

Mastercard has been pushing the advancement of biometric technology in payments for years. Mastercard Identity Check, an authentication solution that enables individuals to use biometric identifiers, such as fingerprint, iris and facial recognition to verify their identity using a mobile device during online shopping and banking activities, is already available in 37 countries around the world.

In addition to working on standards for mobile device authentication, Mastercard has been running pilot projects for smartcards with on-board fingerprint sensors.