MasterCard and Zwipe Team to Offer Fingerprint Authenticated Contactless Payment Card

MasterCard and Zwipe have announced their partnership for the launch of the world's first contactless payment card featuring an integrated fingerprint sensor. The launch of the card comes after a successful live pilot with Norway's Sparebanken DIN, aligned to the Eika Group, as an answer to the complex challenge of providing a fast, convenient payment solution that does not compromise on security.
 
The Zwipe MasterCard payment card is the world's first fingerprint authenticated contactless payment card. It includes an integrated biometric sensor and the Zwipe secure biometric authentication technology that holds the cardholder's biometric data. It contains an EMV certified secure element and  MasterCard's contactless application.
 
The card is the first of its kind to combine the security of biometric authentication with the speed and convenience of contactless payment. Cardholder fingerprint data is stored directly on the card, not in an external database. After activation by a simple fingerprint scan, the Zwipe MasterCard card can be used to make contactless payments. The biometric authentication replaces the PIN entry, thus enabling cardholders to make payments of any amount, unlike other contactless payment cards on the market.
 
Zwipe is now working on the next generation of its card that will be the same format as a standard card and designed to work with all payment terminals for release in 2015. This new card will harvest energy from the payment terminals without the need for a battery.