You've now embraced fingerprint payment on your phones, so get ready to experience it on another everyday item: the bank card.
Indeed, this technology developed by the company Thalès makes it possible to verify the identity of the customer thanks to biometric sensors allowing, with a little help, to settle any sum.
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When paying, the cardholder simply needs to put their thumb on the sensor. The chip will then recognize the fingerprint, and it will only have to make its contactless payment. Now, no more worrying about the amount of the invoice, this secure technology authorizes all amounts, as long as they do not exceed the limits of the card.
BNP Paribas is the first player to intervene in the breach after the tests of the electronics group Thalès were conclusive.
The technology is now available to Visa Premier cardholders, already costing 134 euros per year.
To this, we must add 24 euros per year to afford a card including the biometric system.
BNP Paribas, however, plans to gradually democratize this system, as confided by Catherine Boidin, responsible for individual payment methods at BNP, in Le Parisien.
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We are currently studying the possibility of extending the solution to other types of cards because technologically it is possible
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Explosion of contactless
This phenomenon is part of the current context where contactless payment is more and more popular. At the beginning of July, the Observatory for the security of means of payment published a report giving an account of this development. This is explained in particular by the increase in the payment ceiling, from 30 to 50 euros. It is now the most widely used means of payment in France with an ever lower fraud rate (0.013% in 2020).
This new technology therefore represents a sector of the future for electronics manufacturers and banks. Bertrand Knopf, vice-president of banking and payment solutions at Thales, assured Business Wire that “
the biometric payment card ensures uncapped contactless payment, while protecting the confidentiality of this highly personal data”.
Note that the use of the PIN code is still possible on this type of card and that the fingerprint is not necessary for expenses below 50 euros. In addition, this innovation, a guarantee of security, should be offered from 2022 by other French banks.