Last week I went to IKEA to buy a wardrobe for my guest’s bedroom. I had already looked at it online, but wanted to go and experience it first-hand as well. I went into the store, picked the item up and headed towards the cashier. I was hurrying a bit because I had other appointments to attend in the upcoming hours. Once I arrived at the cashier, the worker was scanning the items of the person in front of me. It looked like they had just moved in to a new place, because there was a lot of new furniture that this person had picked out. While checking out and trying to pay, his credit card kept declining. He tried again and the transaction failed again. He knew that he had one last time to try entering the PIN before his card would permanently be banned of use. He tried finding the pin in Notes (which by the way we totally discourage doing since it is very sensitive data that could easily be corrupted if your phone gets hacked or stolen). Then, he tried calling family and asking them and nobody knew. This all lasted 30 minutes and if you have ever been waiting on a line in the cashier of a store, you know how impatient you get if somebody in front of you takes this long to pay. He finally decided to return everything because he couldn’t risk getting his card banned because he had forgotten the password. I mean, it has happened to all of us at least once that we have forgotten the pin or put it wrongly. When it finally was my turn to pay, I simply slid my bank card and the transaction went through within 3 seconds. I had a moment of realization and I thought to myself; the payment has become so easy but with all the technological development that is to come, what else could there be? That’s when it stroke me. Years ago, I had to put in the pin to my card and often times unfortunately, I had troubles remembering it, but nowadays thanks to the advanced and absolutely convenient biometric card I can simply swipe my card next to the Point of Sales (PoS) terminal and its NFC reader recognizes it without any problem.
But hey, do you know what is even better than this? The fact that you don’t even need to type your pin for paying for a comparably high transaction volume with a biometric card, because till today, in most countries there is a need of a specific low transaction limit for the contactless card payments. With the fingerprint authentication on a contactless payment card, this specific low transaction limit could no longer be necessary. By doing so, you are also able to experience a real contactless payment which is a hot take topic ever since the 2020 pandemic era.
Convenience without Compromising on Security with Biometric Cards
Now, the question arises, how safe and trusted are biometric cards? Infineon has partnered up with Fingerprint and they have recently introduced SECORA™ Pay Bio biometric payment card which makes a great step further on this idea of making our payment experience easier and simply more convenient. Infineon’s upcoming SLC39B Secure Element is incorporated in this innovative product designed to offer the most advanced contactless payment experience. Additionally, Infineon Biometric Coil on Module (BCoM) package enables a huge simplification of the biometric card production which will consequently, reduce the product bill of the material and simplify the card production process, without compromising on the security. Regarding safety, the upcoming biometric payment turnkey solution will require a second-factor authentication which will decrease the risk of misuse in case the biometric card gets lost or stolen.
ECO Friendly Products
But, it is the 21st century and one of the big topics of today which people are becoming more and more aware of is designing and manufacturing environmentally friendly products. In order to make its contribution towards environmental sustainability as a semiconductor supplier, Infineon has already completed the Green Conversion, making sure that the materials used for our products contain less than 1,000 ppm lead (Pb) which is compliant with RoHs (Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances). Furthermore, with Infineon’s Biometric Coil-on-Module (BCoM) and Coil on Module (CoM) technologies, the card antenna inlay is implemented with state-of-the-art copper wire, which can be embedded more easily into environmentally friendly inlay sheet materials – recycled materials such as rPVC or ocean plastic.
If you are interested to read more Insights from Infineon’s global experts on the future of payments, click here.