A new announcement by Vietnamese company TSYS on Monday, April 7 shed light on an entirely new biometric payment system that allows consumers to electronically pay for things using nothing more than a fingertip. Free from cards, PINs and even smartphones, this new payment technology is making it extremely simple for patrons to engage in commerce.
Biometrics in Vietnam
Vietnam Export Import Commercial Stock Bank (AKA, Vietnam Eximbank) will be using the new technology for over-the-counter payments as well as ATM transactions for all of its Vietnamese customers.
“Ease of payments is central to the Eximbank vision of financial inclusion and the implementation of transaction identification and authentication with the support of TSYS and fingerprint technology is key to achieving this objective,” said Vice President Mitsuaki Shiogo of Eximbank.
Even considering the scanning software technology service is among the first in the nation, Vietnam Eximbank is feeling confident about its deployment. The company plans to extend its reach even further to point-of-sale (POS) networks such as Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System and Microsoft Dynamics Point of Sale. The ambitious idea is to make fingerprints the de facto payment method across the board, resulting in having the entire process made more seamless for customers as well as merchants.
The new payment system also uses TSYS’s Prime ATM technology, an enhanced rule-based fraud detection management system designed to quickly and effectively zero in on fraud. It relies heavily on regulatory compliance services as consumer monitoring allows for flexible, user-defined rules on the types of activity that counts as suspicious or alert-worthy.
Biometric payment solutions such as this are an exciting and interesting prospect for people on both sides of the cash register. Despite the growing interest in mobile commerce (or “mCommerce”) solutions enabled by smartphone technology, these POS-style “naked payments” that only require the submission of a body part make good cases for themselves. Lost, stolen, forgotten or damaged cards and payment systems will become a thing of the past. The world may see fewer wallet sales and open bar tabs as well.
For instance, a similar product, the Pulse Wallet by Fujitsu, uses palm vein technology to identify users, which allows them to access their digital wallets for easy payments. Not only do products like these funnel banking services to customers regardless of language barriers or literacy levels, but they also can play the environmental card. PulseWallet specifically presents itself as a “green” payment system, since it requires no waste in the forms of cards or receipts.
Such groundbreaking services are paving the way to making banking not only more secure, but also easier. In a world where increased technology means elevated digital risks, the biometric movement seeks to bring peace of mind back to the consumer while taking the learning curve out of commerce.
