SmartMetric Debuts Biometric Credit Card

Unlike standard credit and debit cards that rely on the questionable safety of PIN numbers and CVV codes for user validation, the SmartMetric biometric credit card solution provides 100% card user validation immediately before the card is inserted into a credit card retail reader or ATM.

In other words, the credit or debit card chip and/or the card's internal RFID used for NFC contactless payments will not work without first the card user's fingerprint being successfully matched against their fingerprint that is already stored inside the card.

At no time does the user's fingerprint leave the safety of the card. The SmartMetric biometric card does not store the user’s fingerprint on a centralized computer. Rather, the user’s fingerprint is safely stored inside the SmartMetric card protected behind a highly encrypted firewall.

When a card holder first receives their card it is a simple process for them to store their fingerprint inside the card. Much the same as when a person receives a smartphone and they touch the screen of the phone 3 or 4 times to have their fingerprint registered and stored inside the phone, so too with the SmartMetric biometric card. All the card holder needs to do is touch the card's fingerprint sensor 3 to 4 times and the user's fingerprint will be permanently stored inside the credit or debit card.

The ease of use and in particular the ease of storing a first time card user's fingerprint is highly important in credit card markets such as the United States. The largest credit card issuing Banks in the USA distribute their credit cards to new card holders via the mail. One method of inserting the card user's fingerprint into a card is to have them come into a bank branch and use a specialized fingerprint reader that copies the person's fingerprint and then stores it inside the new card. For most large scale credit card issuers this is not efficient and in the case of some not even possible given their limited branch footprint.

“Having a simple and yet highly secure method for a card user to first install their fingerprint inside of the card, that would also work with existing large scale credit card issuers, was of the utmost importance to the electronic design team at SmartMetric,” said SmartMetric President and CEO, Chaya Hendrick.

Simple and frictionless

After the card holder's fingerprint is stored inside the card, all the card user needs to do is touch the fingerprint sensor on the surface. In less time than it takes to reach across to insert the card into a credit or debit card reader, the card has scanned the user’s fingerprint and matched it with the pre-stored fingerprint inside the card. On a successful fingerprint match, the cards is turned on so that it can perform a card transaction.

The ease of use of the SmartMetric biometric card, along with the fact that it is powered by the SmartMetric internal green battery prior to the card being inserted into a reader to power the internal processor doing the fingerprint scan, means the SmartMetric biometric card is the only card that can work across all card reader types and situations. Biometric cards that do not have an internal independent power supply are very limited on where such cards can be used.

A big advantage for both credit card users as well as banks in fighting card fraud is the fact that the SmartMetric biometric card can not be activated if someone else is trying to use the card.

“Chip and RFID/NFC are activated for use only after a fingerprint match on the card bringing very strong biometric security for the next generation of credit cards,” said SmartMetric’s President and CEO, Chaya Hendrick.

SmartMetric’s Biometric card addresses the multibillion existing chip-based credit and debit card market. Figures published by EMVCo¹ reveal that by year end of 2020, 10.8 billion EMV^® chip cards have been issued by financial institutions and were in global circulation – a massive increase of nearly 1 billion credit and debit EMV^® cards compared to the previous twelve months.

To view the SmartMetric Biometric Card please follow this link - Video of the SmartMetric Biometric Card. To view the company website: www.smartmetric.com.

¹ Data Source: 10 Billion and Counting: What the Latest EMV^® Chip Data Means for Global Payments - EMVCo

EMV is a registered trademark of EMVCo.