South Africa’s Absa Bank to be first to trial new Visa specification
for fingerprint validation at chip ATMs
SAN FRANCISCO & JOHANNESBURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today introduced a new specification to use
biometrics with chip card transactions. The specification can enable
palm, voice, iris, or facial biometrics. This first-of-its-kind
technology framework is designed to work with the EMV® (Europay,
MasterCard, Visa) chip industry standard to help ensure open, globally
interoperable solutions.
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Visa Introduces EMV Chip-based Biometrics (Photo: Business Wire)
Biometric verification is intended to prevent fraud as well as make it
easier to pay securely. The architecture Visa has designed enables
fingerprints to be securely accepted by a biometric reader, encrypted,
and then validated. The specification supports “match-on-card”
authentication where the biometric is validated by the EMV chip card and
never exposed or stored in any central databases. Issuers can optionally
validate the biometric data within their secure systems for transactions
occurring in their own environments, such as their own ATMs.
Because Visa’s design is built on the EMV chip standard, biometric
cardholder verification can be seamlessly integrated with the technology
used by 3.3 billion chip cards around the world. Financial institutions,
solution providers, and others in the payments ecosystem can rely on an
interoperable and consistent infrastructure for supporting biometrics.
“There is increasing demand for biometrics as a more convenient and
secure alternative to signatures or PINs, especially as biometrics
technologies have become more reliable and available,” said Mark Nelsen,
senior vice president of Risk Products and Business Intelligence, Visa
Inc. “However, to support wide adoption, it is equally important that
solutions are scalable and based on open standards. Building on the EMV
chip standard provides a common, interoperable foundation, as well as
encourages innovation in cutting-edge biometric solutions.”
Absa Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barclays Africa Group, will be
the first to use Visa’s specification to develop a proof of concept
trial beginning this fall. Cardholders will use fingerprint readers at
select Absa-owned ATMs in lieu of a PIN to complete transactions. In
order to prevent potential fraud as well as encourage easier access to
banking, there is strong interest in biometric solutions in South Africa
and other developing countries where banking and electronic payments may
still be nascent.
Visa will offer to contribute the technology to EMVCo, the global
technical body that manages the EMV® Specifications, to further develop
and administer the standard for the benefit of the entire payment
industry.
About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that
connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments
in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable
electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced
processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than
56,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for
consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does
not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers.
Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers
to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time
with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information,
visit usa.visa.com/about-visa,
visacorporate.tumblr.com
and @VisaNews.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150915005607/en/
Source: Visa Inc.