NatWest customers are in trials to use their fingerprint to pay for transactions over £30 in a bid to cut back on fraud. NatWest customers can put a relieved sigh as the company now enables to verify card payments using the fingerprint in a trial taking place in the coming weeks. The bank is piloting a ‘cutting-edge biometric fingerprint bank card with 200 customers.
The trial, which will include 200 customers when it begins in mid-April, will allow its participants to make NFC payments which are called “contactless” in the UK, without needing to input a PIN or offer a signature. The standard £30 limit for contactless payments will not apply when the fingerprint is used.
We are bringing the very latest technology across our business to make banking easier and safer for our customers – David Crawford, head of effortless payments
David Crawford, NatWest’s head of effortless payments, said that they are using the very latest technology across our business to make banking easier for our customers and biometric fingerprint cards are one of the many technologies we are exploring further.
NatWest said to the reporters that they are still far from confirming whether the NatWest biometric fingerprint debit cards, whether it be debit or credit, will ever eventually be rolled out to all customers or not, and hence they’re not yet ruling out the idea. Recently, NatWest has collaborated with digital security company Gemalto to make the cards, which will work in existing Visa and Mastercard machines, so customers won’t be restricted to shopping in certain retailers.
