The first debit card with built-in fingerprint reader is launched by the NatWest bank in the United Kingdom.
UK bank NatWest is testing the use of a new card payments NFC with integrated fingerprint scanner. The test will include 200 customers, starts in mid-April and will allow participants to carry out NFC payments (Near Field Communication or otherwise "contactless payments") without having to enter a PIN or sign. The standard limit of EUR 30 applicable to contactless transactions in the United Kingdom (in Greece is 25 euro) will not apply when the fingerprint is used.
Currently, anyone can make a contactless payment in either the UK or Greece, ακουμπώντας σε ένα τερματικό την κάρτα του που θα πρέπει να υποστηρίζει ανέπαφες πληρωμές. Ως αποτέλεσμα αυτής της έλλειψης ασφάλειας, εφαρμόζεται ένα όριο των 25-30 ευρώ σε τέτοιες πληρωμές (αναλόγως την χώρα), όπου οι έμποροι λιανικής σας ζητούν να τοποθετήσετε την κάρτα σας στον αναγνώστη καρτών (POS) και να εισαγάγετε ένα PIN για αγορές μεγαλύτερες του παραπάνω ορίου (συνήθως αναφέρεται ως “chip και PIN” μέθοδος).
It seems that something will change in this method after the first serious tests with fingerprint cards are done. Fingerprint data is stored locally on the card, which means there is no security information for a hacker that can be stolen from a bank's central database. Of course that lock is unlocked as there is always the risk that a sufficiently determined thief can steal and imitate your fingerprint, but according to the Natwest bank is much more secure than a PIN that someone could learn just looking over your shoulder as you type it.
Biometric authentication, which has already become a standard NFC mobile payment element, despite credit card tests conducted by 2015, has failed to respond to traditional bank cards. Gemalto, the company behind the biometric card technology, conducted a test in South Africa 2017 as well as another one last year Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo. The problem was that the cards required users to visit their bank for the footprint instead of doing it on their own, as is the case with mobile phone payment services.
The NatWest test does not overcome this problem. Participants should visit a branch of their bank. In a video released by the manufacturer Gemalto says he hopes future versions of the system will allow customers to use their own phone to record their fingerprints.
This inconvenience raises the question of why biometric cards are necessary when mobile payment functionality is included in so many modern smartphones with fingerprint readers and face scanners. But since bank cards are provided free of charge to a qualifying bank account, the system this has the potential to be made available to users who don't want or can't afford to buy a modern one smartphone.
