Is there still an opportunity for biometric payment cards?
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# Is there still an opportunity for biometric payment cards?
The rise of biometric payments
Aug 25, 2025, 6:11 am EDT | Alan Goode
Categories Biometrics News | Financial Services | Industry Analysis
_By Alan Goode, CEO and Chief Analyst atGoode Intelligenc_
Biometrics has had a significant impact on payments, allowing secure and frictionless payment experiences on all payment channels, even enabling new channels to be supported.
The pay-by-me revolution is steadily replacing phishable PINs and passwords with easy-to-use, and not forgettable, inherence factors that are supported by regulation and global standards.
One area of biometric payments that has seen mixed fortunes is biometric payment cards. Biometric payment cards operate in the same way as normal smartcards apart from the user having to activate the card using their enrolled fingerprint, thus replacing the PIN.
There is a match between the person’s finger and a fingerprint template stored on the card. If the match is successful, then the card is activated, and the customer can use the card at a payment terminal. If the match is unsuccessful, then the card cannot be used. This means that the card is useless without the presence of the legitimate owner and if the card is lost or stolen then cannot be used. Payment card vendors are creating ISO 7810 compliant contact and contactless cards that can be adopted by banks to replace non-biometric smartcards.
## Biometric payment cards – high expectations not met
As an analyst company that has been active in biometric payments for over 10 years, Goode Intelligence, and many other analyst companies, has previously been bullish on the prospects for biometric payment cards believing that a combination of strong consumer demand, consequences of COVID-19 to hygiene control in physical spaces (avoid touching a PIN PAD), and a move towards biometrics being the defacto payment authentication mechanism would lead to high levels of adoption. However, high levels o