Mastercard teams up with NEC to push the use of facial recognition for in-store payments
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Mastercard recently unveiled its collaboration with the NEC Corporation dedicated to pushing the use of facial recognition technology for in-store payments in the Asia Pacific region.
According to the two companies, they recently signed a memorandum of understanding that will result in them combining Mastercard’s payment-enabling technology with NEC’s face recognition and liveness verification solutions. By combining the two, the firms hope to enhance user experience, as well as security during payments in the region.
Increasing security, privacy, data protection, and biometric performance
The partnership actually comes as the latest stage of Mastercard’s initiative, known as the Biometric Checkout Program. The program launched last year in Brazil, where the card giant decided to test its pilot.
The idea behind the initiative is to use advanced new technologies to provide merchants, banks, and fintechs with a new tech framework that would set certain minimum standards for data protection, privacy requirements, biometric performance, and security in general.
Mastercard’s president of cyber and intelligence solutions, Ajay Bhalla, commented on the move, explaining that biometric solutions are the next step in payments, as they offer a quick, seamless, secure checkout. There is no need to unlock one’s phone or insert pins, or anything of the sort.
Bhalla notes that the retailing environments continue to evolve and change, especially when it comes to choices in which customers can make payments. The specter of payment options and solutions has expanded rapidly, and so the protective technologies need to do the same in order to keep the users safe but also make payments as convenient as possible.
“This partnership with NEC will enable us to bring exciting new biometric payments to customers in countries across the Asia Pacific and lead the world in safe and convenient checkout experiences,” Bhalla said.
Biometrics have already seen high level of adoption in the region
Meanwhile, NEC Corporation’s corporate senior VP and managing director of the Financial Solutions Division, Takao Iwai, said that by utilizing NEC’s world-class face recognition technology, the new payment system will be able to offer both convenience and security.
“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.”
The adoption of the new technology is not expected to be an issue either, as consumers around the world are embracing the benefits of biometrics. In the Asia Pacific region alone, 82% of consumers already use at least one form of biometrics already.
On average, consumers reported using three types of biometrics, and similar interest and adoption level was noticed among businesses. According to some estimates, biometrics will authenticate over $3 trillion in payment transactions by 2025.
