Mastercard has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with technology and electronics company NEC to commercialise biometric in-store checkout transactions.
The partnership will leverage NEC’s facial recognition and verification technology and combine it with Mastercard’s payments infrastructure to drive payment innovations across the Asia-Pacific region.
Ajay Bhalla, President of Cyber and Intelligence Solutions atMastercard, commented: “As retailing environments continue to evolve and choices in ways to pay rapidly expand, biometric solutions offer a seamless, quick and secure checkout, without needing to unlock a phone or insert a PIN.
“This partnership with NEC will enable us to bring exciting new biometric payments to customers in countries across Asia Pacific and lead the world in safe and convenient checkout experiences.”
The MoU will largely focus on developing Mastercard’s Biometric Checkout Program as it aims to transform in-store payments by allowing consumers to simply smile or wave to complete a purchase.
With NEC being one of its early adopters, the program offers financial institutions, merchants and technology providers a framework that encompasses security, biometric performance, data protection and privacy requirements.
This all comes amid a market boom for biometrics, with Mastercard indicating that 82% of consumers in the Asia Pacific region are already using at least one form of biometrics, and further predictions that biometrics will authenticate more than $3tn transactions by 2025.
Takao Iwai, Corporate Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Financial Solutions Division at NEC Corporation, commented: “By utilising NEC’s world-class face recognition technology, the new payment system will provide both security and convenience.
“By collaborating with Mastercard, which has payment assets used around the world, NEC will provide a new payment experience, aiming to create a world where everyone can use digital technology with safety.”
