Zwipe has just made the first shipment of its biometric technology products, for use in commercial contactless biometric payment card pilots by leading card manufacturers and banks. In total, Zwipe’s card manufacturing partners represent over 40% of the global smart card market, per volume shipped per the Nilson Report. Zwipe has entered into seven new agreements with both card manufacturers and payments ecosystem partners with a focus on meeting escalating commercial demand for biometric smartcard solutions.
Zwipe received their first commercial orders for their contactless biometric payment card inlay in June of this year. The rapid growth of contactless payment is a key driver for the integration of biometric technology on conventional payment cards. Contactless payment card adoption throughout the world has seen double digit growth globally, and with that, contactless transaction fraud has also grown equally as fast. Additionally, new regulation is seeking to address these challenges by mandating much stronger consumer authentication, as seen in the European Commission’s Payments Services Directive, PSD2. Biometric enabled contactless payment cards directly address these issues.
Zwipe’s biometric contactless payment card is the only smartcard solution commercially available, and the only solution capable of operating without the need for a battery or fixed power supply. Other biometric card concepts are most commonly capable of contact-only payment, or operate with the support of a battery.
