MasterCard adds fingerprint sensors to payment cards

PanARMENIAN.Net - MasterCard is testing out new fingerprint sensor-enabled payment cards that, combined with the onboard chips, offer a new, convenient way to authorize your in-person transactions. Instead of signing a paper receipt or entering your PIN while struggling to cover up the number pad, you simply place your thumb on your card to prove your identity, Engadget says.

The new cards are currently being tested in South Africa, and MasterCard hopes to roll them out to the rest of the world by the end of 2017. Even if that happens, though, you'll still have to wait for your bank or financial institution to get on board.

Once the technology is ready for the public, here's how it should work. Your bank will inform you that the biometric card is available, and if you're interested, you'll have to go to an enrollment center (most likely a bank) to get your fingers scanned. An encrypted digital template of your fingerprint is stored on the card's EMV chip. You can save up to two prints, but they would both have to be yours -- you can't authorize someone else to use your card with their fingers. After your templates are saved, your card is ready to be used at compatible terminals worldwide -- merchants don't have to get new equipment to accept your fingerprint-enabled plastic.

The card itself is surprisingly no thicker than a regular credit card. The fingerprint sensor is a small, thumbnail-sized rectangle that sits at the top right corner, and is easily accessible when you stick the card into a payment terminal.

This method is only compatible with chip-and-pin cards, so it won't work with stores that only accept the older magnetic stripe models. But embedded chip technology has become increasingly popular, thanks largely to regulations making financial institutions and merchants liable for breaches resulting from a lack of support for chip-and-pin cards.