Mastercard “Selfie Pay”

Following the news about the announcement that Mastercard will allow customers to pay with a selfie, Jay Floyd, Head of Fraud Strategy and Solutions EMEA at ACI Worldwide commented below on the rise of biometric payments which allows online shoppers to use fingerprints or selfies to verify their identities.

Jay Floyd, Head of Fraud Strategy and Solutions EMEA at ACI Worldwide:

 “The launch by MasterCard proves that the disruption in the payment sector is well underway.

“Recent research has shown a growing demand for biometric payments especially amongst millennials. The widespread use of biometric payments is only a matter of time, not a question of if but when.

“There are numerous benefits to biometric authentication. Apart from offering a more hassle free way to pay, biometric authentication methods also offer higher levels of security. Better security techniques are expected to mitigate fraud exposure for banks and retailers, however, as we have seen over the last few decades, fraudsters are very adaptable and they will invest time and money in figuring out any vulnerabilities in regards to these new authentication methods.

“The question remains what a standard biometric payment will look like as there are numerous biometric touch points we can take from vein recognition to fingerprint, iris scan and voice recognition.

“I personally believe we will see a bigger shift towards voice biometric authentication, specifically for e-commerce payments, internet and telephone banking. I also think biometric authentication via mobile wallets will become mainstream within the next decade.

“The race is definitely on. Indeed banks not considering the introduction of a range of biometric identification methods will undoubtedly be left behind and see their customers signing up with one of those banks offering better and more convenient ways of authentication.”