A woman pays for a coffee contactless with her credit card

Adding a personal touch to the payment experience

Technical Innovation

5 Mins.

Consumers’ expectations of payment providers are greater than ever. They want it all – simplicity, security, and style. Fortunately, a new type of biometric payment card can give them everything that they want.

Different technology and consumer trends are converging to create a new opportunity in the payment space. On the one hand, biometric authentication is a reliable technology that has been deployed in a wide array of use cases, ranging from passports to mobile phones. With increased daily application, people have become used to biometric authentication and have learned to trust the technology.

On the other, there have been significant changes in digital payment behaviors. Customers have come to expect that making a payment is a user-friendly experience. Furthermore, they increasingly expect payment options to signal something positive about who they are. This is nothing new – after all, “gold,” “platinum,” or “black” credit cards have been around for a long time – but the trend is moving away from status thinking and toward more convenience.

Improving payment experience with biometric cards

The card is only for you

Card payment with a biometric card and fingerprint — Card payment with a biometric card via fingerprint.

Customized payment cards cards (offered by some banks and issuers) already provide consumers with a way to distinguish and express themselves through the use an image or design of their choice. However, cards encoded with consumers’ own encrypted biometric data take status signaling to the next level. By embracing the new feature, users demonstrate that they are technologically savvy and that they embrace cutting-edge products. For payment providers, this creates a good association for their brands.

Payment cards with built-in biometrics marry the ease of contactless payments with the simplicity of fingerprint recognition. Many customers already use fingerprint verification throughout each day to unlock their mobile phones or laptops. Therefore, using the technology to support the verification or processing of a payment is not only convenient – it is cool. Moreover, the solution adds a new dimension of trust without requiring the user to learn a new technology or adopt a new behavior.

Be different, be unique, be bold

For payment providers, offering biometric payment cards represents a real point of differentiation. Biometric authentication is a key selling point with customers who follow the latest trends. In offering biometric cards as a payment option, providers show that they are technologically advanced and a step ahead of their competition.

“Crédit Agricole de Lorraine has already rolled out biometric payment cards for clients in France. Customers can now apply for a biometric card that enables them to authenticate contactless payments above the country’s €50 contactless transaction limit with their fingerprint rather than their PIN. The technology behind the bank’s compelling offering: G+D Convego^® YOU.“

Furthermore, the cards themselves offer an attractive branding opportunity, which can result in gaining the much-coveted “top-of-wallet” position. G+D’s Convego^® YOU cards are visibly different from traditional debit and credit cards. This helps the card to be recognized not only by customers themselves, but also by other members of the public who see the fingerprint authentication in action. Unsurprisingly, the payoff from adopting biometric technology will be the biggest for early adopters, while the technology is still a talking point.

Fitting into the payment ecosystem

Enrollment and activation of the card is uncomplicated, with several choices – by mobile app, via a card reader, at home, or at a bank branch – open to consumers. This range of different options indicates to customers that a given provider is flexible and can offer a good customer experience. The cards themselves can be used anywhere traditional dual-payment debit or credit cards are accepted.

Because biometrics offer an additional layer of technology on top of PIN and contactless, different types of authentication can be designed into how the card can be used. As such, it complements existing measures to combat card fraud rather than displacing them entirely.

The user’s biometric data is securely stored in encrypted form on the card and cannot be accessed by vendors or anyone else. The solution is designed to avoid data compliance issues and minimize the bureaucracy for providers, while giving consumers a good banking experience.

To summarize, biometric payment cards offer the convenience of contactless with the added security of identity verification. They combine tested technologies in a new way that offers customers a genuinely innovative product. With Convego^® YOU, G+D is once again giving payment providers new ways to stay ahead of the competition.

Published: 11/10/2022