Biometric payments have evolved from the early days of fingerprint authentication. Today, technologies like fingerprint and facial recognition are gaining widespread attention and acceptance.
This broad appreciation for biometric methods highlights a shift toward more secure and efficient payment experiences.
“Consumers are embracing new ways to pay,” said Dennis Gamiello, Executive Vice President of Identity Products & Innovation at Mastercard. “Over time, we have all developed a familiarity and comfort with biometric technology—using it in our lives daily—and there’s a broad appreciation for the enhanced security biometrics brings.
“That’s why industry experts forecast biometrics securing up to $3 trillion of digital payments according to Juniper Research,” he said. “In fact, biometrics are becoming an increasingly common way to pay and authenticate yourself.”
New Innovations
In an increasingly digital world, the way consumers make purchases is evolving. Leveraging biometrics for authentication and transactions represents the next step in the evolution of frictionless payments, similar to the shift seen with contactless cards and devices.
Customers want options, whether it’s paying by face, palm, or other biometric methods. It’s all about finding what best suits their needs.
As biometric payment options become more common in the U.S., an increasing number of merchants, retailers, and financial institutions will adopt and integrate this technology into their offerings.
“Over time, we anticipate more consumers and businesses will embrace biometric checkout experiences because they’re simpler and more secure,” said Gamiello. “We also see that biometrics are flexible and adaptable to various in-store experiences. For example, biometrics can play a more traditional role in the in-store checkout journey, replacing physical cards at checkout, all the way up to more autonomous shopping experiences.”
A Significant Learning Curve
Amazon is just one of many companies betting big on biometric payments. Last year, the e-commerce giant began working with several retailers and quick-service restaurants—including Panera Bread, select Starbucks locations, and Whole Foods stores—to introduce its palm-reading payment technology, Amazon One.
Through pay-by-palm, consumers can make a payment with a simple palm gesture. While eye scans for payments have become somewhat familiar, palm-based payments are still emerging and not widely accepted—yet. There is a learning curve associated with this new technology.
In Javelin’s Are Consumers “Buying” Biometric Identification? Christopher Miller, Emerging Payments Lead Analyst, and James Wester, Co-Head of Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, explored the emergence of biometric technology. They dug into the various payment methods available, including pay-by-palm, which hasn’t taken off like many anticipated.
“According to Javelin’s data, the most widely used methods of biometric identification are fingerprint and facial recognition; pay by palm is in a very distant fourth place,” Miller said. “Amazon was attempting to train consumers on a new biometric method that’s not in harmony with what they use with their devices every day. They were swimming upstream.”
Security Around Biometric Payments
As biometric payments gain traction, concerns about data security and privacy inevitably arise.
Securing clear consent will be crucial for these innovative systems to gain widespread acceptance and trust.
“We established a clear set of data responsibility principles that put people first: You own your data. You control it,” Gamiello said. “You should benefit from the use of it. Our job is to protect it.
“With our Biometric Authentication Service, for example, the biometrics remain local and are never shared with Mastercard. The consumer’s biometric data never leaves their personal device, enhancing security and privacy,” he said. “Biometric service providers, processors and merchants should also establish and implement a framework that puts security, biometric performance, data protection and privacy at the center of the experience.”
Regulation is also key. Regulatory bodies play a significant role in shaping the future of biometric payments, particularly concerning interoperability and security protocols.
By working together, regulators and the payments ecosystem can drive innovation, standardization, and interoperability to ensure the highest levels of security.
Looking Ahead
Biometrics are already used across various industries for access management, document authentication, and online e-commerce authentication.
We can expect continued growth in biometric applications, including the adoption of passkeys over traditional passwords and one-time passcodes, as well as advancements in secure and convenient in-car and transit payments.
“The most important thing to know is this is happening,” Miller told PaymentsJournal earlier this month. “Within the next one to three years it will be commonplace, perhaps even the norm, for U.S. transactions both online and in-store to involve some form of biometric authentication. That doesn’t mean companies have to shift immediately. Just make it available and give your customers a reason to switch.”
