Fingerprint Cards has been a leader in the technology that embeds a fingerprint biometric reader in a payment card. To its credit, Fingerprint card released statistics for its solution related to False Acceptance Rates (1 in 20,000) and False Rejection Rates (<3%), which are important stats often not released by biometric suppliers.
The announcement made here reduces complexity and eliminates a microcontroller which should lower the cost to implement. As stated before the primary issue preventing broader adoption of these cards in the US is cost. Not only does the cost increase for the initial card, but it is likely that the fingerprint reader will lower the mean time between failure which will drive the need for more re-issuance.
Still, security and safety make a strong marketing message, so some financial institutions may decide to deploy these cards as part of aa wealth management message or perhaps enable consumers to pay a fee for the increased security:
“Fingerprint Cards and Infineon have developed a method for carrying out biometric authentication entirely within the latter’s secure element, eliminating the need for a separate processor and making it easier and less costly to develop and roll out biometric payment cards.
The partners say processing within the Infineon secure element maintains biometric performance and increases security.
The new processing method is performed using Infineon’s SLC38 40nm security controller, Fingerprint Card’s T-Shape 2 sensor module, and its latest biometric payment software. FPC’s research and development team focused on reducing the requirements for memory, flash and RAM of its software for execution within the Infineon SE.
Nearly half of all payment cards with embedded chips worldwide includes an Infineon security controller, according to the announcement.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group