Japanese payments firm JCB will conduct a trial of its new biometric card which features fingerprint authentication.

Enabled by IDEMIA, the new payment solution requires users to first register one or more fingerprints for authentication purposes. When they want to buy something, they need only touch the fingerprint sensor on the card's lower right corner with their finger so as to authenticate payment.

The fingerprint record is only kept in the card, and given that fingerprint authentication is also done on the card, merchants do not need any further equipment to accept payment. The new card means that users no longer have to rely on entering a PIN number for authentication at the point of sale, with verification taking the same amount of time – if not shorter.

JCB employees will initially trial the new card from April. Once card users have recorded their fingerprints using a smartphone or tablet app, they can make purchases via fingerprint authentication at merchants accepting JCB Contactless payments.

The purpose of the pilot is to validate whether the solution is convenient for consumers and practical for the payment.

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