Nigeria’s Access Bank is to introduce a payments system that uses a combination of facial recognition and artificial intelligence to let customers make purchases at retail stores, Ventures Africa reports... More
Face recognition
Mastercard unveils plan to let transit operators use biometrics to identify passengers
Mastercard is working with transport operators on the development of new biometric ticketing solutions that will make it possible for passengers to be automatically identified as they board a service, the payments network has revealed... More
UK consumers warming to face biometrics
A survey has found that while half of Brits are happy to unlock their phones with their faces, only a third trust the technology to authorise a payment... More
China publishes face recognition payments guidelines
The Payment & Clearing Association of China (PCAC) has published a set of guidelines that regulate how payments providers making use of face recognition to process payments at the point of sale (POS) should manage the protection of consumer data... More
Osaka Metro begins Japan’s first face recognition ticketing pilot
Osaka Metro unveils ticket gate with facial recognition tech — The Japan Times — “The trial period, set to run through September next year, will be conducted at four stations: Dome-mae Chiyozaki, Morinomiya, Dobutsuen-mae and Daikokucho. Each station will have facial recognition gates developed by four different firms to compare their functionality… The subway operator aims to introduce the gates at all of its train stations by fiscal 2024, ahead of the 2025 World Expo in the city of Osaka.”
Danish office workers pilot face recognition payments
Nets trials face payments in Copenhagen — Nets — “Around 1,000 people — all working at Vibenshuset, an office community of 25 companies in Copenhagen — can sign up to participate in the pilot. By linking their face with their employee ID card, they can now pay for their lunch using their face at Kokkenes Køkken’s cafeteria.”
Zhengzhou Metro rolls out face scanning across its subway network
China’s subways embrace face-scan payments despite privacy concerns — AsiaOne — “Since the service began trials in September, nearly 200,000 commuters in Zhengzhou have elected to authorise face-scan payments using a local metro service app… While Zhengzhou is among dozens of Chinese cities to introduce such trials, it is the first to deploy the service across its entire subway network.”
Chinese government forms face recognition standards body
Government asks SenseTime to lead plans for national facial recognition standards — Caixin Global — “The working group, which also includes Tencent, Xiaomi, and Ant Financial, is overseen by the National Information Technology Standardization Technical Committee (NITS), which is in turn affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It will also promote the further formulation of facial recognition standards at an international level.”
Bank of America adds face recognition to mobile banking app
Bank of America updates Android app to support Pixel 4 face unlock — 9to5Google — “Release notes for version 8.3.11 of Bank of America for Android prominently mentions the ‘Ability to sign in with face unlock (Pixel 4 only)’… After updating, you’ll need to enter your password one more time, and select the ‘Set up biometric sign-in’ checkbox. After completing BofA’s process, Pixel 4 face unlock will work on all subsequent sign-in attempts.”
Nestlé pilots face recognition payments in Barcelona
Food giant Nestlé is testing face recognition payments at Nestlé Market, a concept supermarket in Barcelona, Spain, that stocks the company’s established brands as well as the latest additions to its range... More
Brits warm to biometric verification
Just under half of British consumers are ready to completely replace traditional verification methods with biometrics for withdrawing cash (46%), starting their car (45%) and unlocking their front door (41%), according to new research from Equifax... More
CaixaBank uses NFC to let customers check in to flagship bank branch of the future
Spain’s CaixaBank has unveiled ‘all in one’, a 3,000sqm bank branch in Barcelona that showcases the latest financial technology experiences — including NFC check-ins and facial recognition ATMs... More
Google explains the benefits of its Biometric API
One Biometric API over all Android — Google — “In addition to supporting multiple biometric authentication form factors, the API has made it much easier for developers to check whether a given device has biometric sensors… In addition, the framework has built-in support for facial authentication in Android 10 so that vendors don’t need to create a custom implementation.”
Chinese supermarket to launch face recognition payments in Canada
Pay with your face system coming to Canada, but not everyone is on board — Yahoo Finance — “Ryan Li, Foodymart’s executive manager, sees the technology as an opportunity to grow his company’s business by attracting new customers, as well as cutting down on checkout times. Li also said between 50% and 60% of Foodymart customers have lived in China, and he expects most of them have previously interacted with a facial recognition payment system.”
7-Eleven reports on face biometric payments adoption in China
A face recognition-based biometric payments system installed at 1,000 7-Eleven outlets in southern China last May has been adopted by 10% of the convenience store’s customers, the retailer has told Nikkei Asian Review... More
Kazakhstan pilots face recognition bus ticketing
A new bus ticketing system that lets passengers use face recognition to make hands-free payments for their tickets has entered pilot testing in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Nur-Sultan... More
EMT to pilot blockchain and face recognition ticketing in Madrid
Madrid public transportation operator EMT has announced plans to run two next-generation transportation payments pilots... More
Zhengzhou Metro rolls out face recognition ticketing
Face-scanning metro check-in and payment launched in central China — Xinhua — “Zhengzhou Metro in central China’s Henan Province has ushered in the face-scanning era, as a new check-in and payment system based on facial recognition was launched on Friday… It is the first face-scanning metro check-in and payment system in the country launched along a full metro line, providing passengers with a better experience of quick pass access and automatic ticket buying.”
Guangzhou Metro pilots facial recognition at ticket barriers
South China city subway adopts facial recognition — Xinhua — “Instead of using tickets or swiping their smartphones, passengers can smile at a screen to unlock the electric gates in about half a second after completing a real-name registration on Guangzhou Metro’s official mini-program on WeChat, China’s popular social media platform, or on the ‘Guangzhou Metro’ mobile app. The fee will be deducted from the payment methods that subway riders previously register and validate through their mobile phones.”
Telia tests 5G face recognition payments
Finnish carrier Telia is working with OP Bank to test the viability of using a high speed 5G network to deliver face recognition payments to merchants operating in locations without a fixed line connection... More