Smile…it’s paid for!
Caixa, Spain’s leading retail bank, launched new cash machines this year in four of its Barcelona branches. Withdrawals can be made by facial recognition.
How does it work?
You have to pre-register for the service. This stage takes place in a few minutes in branch with the help of an advisor and a tablet.
Identification at the point of withdrawal is by means of software that identify up to 16,000 points on facial image.
The client also has to present his bank card, smartphone or smartwatch when withdrawing money.
Well.com, the e-wallet made by Oney.
Since the end of 2018 customers of three French Auchan in Bucharest in Romania have been testing payment for their shopping within, at most, 2 seconds.
How? Simply by placing their finger on a biometric reader.
The formula is working – it has already acquired some 2,000 regular users in just 6 months.
Not even scared!
Obviously, the solution respects user’s personal data. Effectively, here there is no biometric database and the technology does not store the data. The fingerprint is kept in the client’s phone and this is what communicates directly with the reader.
It’s the determining factor to reassure consumers. Especially when we know that 9 out of 10 consumers want a safe and secure payment system as a priority (see our Oney – Opinion Way survey on Payment in Europe on oney.com)
Still in test phase, the technology could widen to other financial services, before covering the whole territory over the next few months.
In China, take the tube without a ticket!
While in Europe certain countries are still reticent about using smartphones or biometric technology, not so in China.
For a number of years already, facial recognition is used to replace boarding cards in certain airports, to pay for certain purchases and to take the tube.
The technology is ready, now it’s just people’s mind-set that needs to evolve, with the help no doubt of education and reassurance from retailers and the banks.