It can also help governments distribute social benefits, knowing that they reach no one else than the eligible (proof of life) citizen. Banks can also use the biometric card as a differentiating factor to keep their card ‘top of wallet' for their customers.

Further, biometric cards will take contactless payments to the next stage. As a customer authenticates the payment by holding his/her finger onto the biometric card, the added security enables merchants to extend the threshold of contactless payments, which are currently capped at smaller amounts.

Biometric recognition is now available through a fingerprint sensor which has been inserted into a fully EMV-compliant card. The cardholder's biometric fingerprint template is securely stored in the chip of the card. As the card is inserted into/tapped onto an EMV payment terminal, cardholders place their finger onto the sensor and an OT-Morpho algorithm matches the fingerprint to the template stored in the card, replacing the manual entry of a PIN.

"As market leader, OT-Morpho is the first to deploy a full range of cards equipped with biometric authentication enabling both contact and contactless payments. OT-Morpho offers an end-to-end solution, including enrollment, biometric data management, card production and personalisation." Eric Duforest, OT-Morpho, Managing Director of the Financial Services Institutions business at OT.