Verifone, a company supplying 300,000 Eftpos terminals across Australia, is introducing biometric payment technology for retail. This innovation will allow shoppers to make payments by scanning their face or palm-veins, which are the veins in people’s hands.
The company is marketing this as “pay for your coffee with a smile,” with the aim of providing faster checkouts for customers who choose to use the biometric option for Eftpos transactions. Ben Hughes, Verifone's head of product for Asia Pacific, stated that these payments are intended to reduce the “friction” of slow transactions.
The widespread availability of this technology may take time, as cafes, restaurants, and retailers will need to upgrade their current equipment. Verifone anticipates that retailers will deploy the new Victa devices, which launched last month, incrementally as their existing terminals reach their end-of-life.
Hughes also noted that the technology requires buy-in from banks and other organisations that wish to enable their customers to pay using biometrics. Verifone converts biometrics into tokens on the device, meaning the company does not store images, but biometric profiles are managed by merchants, banks, or digital wallet providers.