Japan's Aeon financial services is teaming up with tech giant Fujitsu to trial a biometric system that lets Japanese consumers pay for goods with their veins.
The credit card unit of Aeon is tapping Fujitsu's palm vein biometric authentication technology for the pilot which will begin in September, according to a media statement from the technology firm.
Aeon cardholders will not need to carry cards or smart devices once they register their palm vein pattern to their Aeon card, allowing them to carry out transactions empty-handed. When paying at a register, customers pay by scanning the palm of their hand over a reader.
Biometric Future of Banking
Verification using palm veins has high authentication accuracy as there are numerous veins within the palm of the hand. Their arrangement is complex, which offers unique personal identification security.
Unlike fingerprints, vein patterns leave no trace and cannot be copied. As the information is in the body, this method reliably authenticates a person, with little chance of outside interference.
This latest move shows how banks and financial services firms are adopting emerging technology to simplify financial transactions, as well as make them more secure: other firms have adopted iris scanning, voice recognition, or in the case of HSBC, «selfies» to identify users.
