MasterCard to Unveil Fingerprint-Scanning Credit Card

LONDON—Mastercard has inked an agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to bring biometric credit cards to the United Kingdom, The Telegraph reports. The announcement came after NatWest started testing a fingerprint-enabled debit card with Visa.

The deal will allow RBS’s credit card users to use fingerprints to verify transactions over £30 (roughly $38) instead of a PIN. The new credit cards will have a small touchpad that consumers press during a transaction to verify their identity. When correctly scanned, the fingerprint will allow payments to be processed as if the user keyed in a PIN.

This partnership is the first for Mastercard in the United Kingdom after months of bank negotiations. The launch date hasn’t been announced, but many predict it will be by September, when new digital payment regulation enforcement (PSD2) rules go into effect. PSD2 mandates that banks do a better job of protecting consumers and securing online payments in the European Union.

Mastercard has been dabbling in biometric technology, including fingerprint detection and facial recognition software, both to tighten security and speed up transactions. The firm has already tested its biometric credit card at BMCE in Morocco, Fransabank in Lebanon, Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy and the National Bank of Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the EU has accepted an offer from Visa and Mastercard to cut fees on payments made by tourists using cards issued outside the bloc. This agreement could cut such fees by 40% on average, a benefit for both merchants and consumers.

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