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 by tapping on a card terminal that should support contactless payments. As a result of this lack of security, a limit of 25-30 euros is applied to such payments (depending on the country), where retailers ask you to place your card in the card reader (POS) and enter a PIN for purchases larger than above limit (usually referred to as the "chip and PIN" method).
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 feature of mobile phone payments with NFC, despite credit card tests conducted since 2015, they have failed to find a response to traditional bank cards. Gemalto, the company πίσω από τη βιομετρική technology of the card, he ran a test in South Africa in 2017 as well as another last year with the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo. The problem was that the cards required them users to visit their bank to enter the fingerprint, instead of doing it themselves, as is the case with mobile 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 on a qualifying bank account, this system has the potential to be made available to users who don't want or can't afford to buy a modern smartphone.
