Palm biometrics is gaining ground with companies planning implementations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
While fingerprints and face biometrics remain far more common in daily use, palm biometrics arguably offers more convenience since palm scanning doesn’t require pressing a finger. It is also touted for its security since an individual’s palm veins are highly unique.
In Poland, HandGo by Autopay is being piloted. It is supposedly the first biometric purchases offering using the palm in Poland.
“At Autopay, we are creating a modern ecosystem of fintech tools designed to meet the needs of businesses and retail customers,” said Andrzej Antoń, CEO and co-founder, on LinkedIn. The executive says the solution will “revolutionize shopping” mentioning the wellness and sports sectors in particular.
On the HandGo website, it promises a “fast, secure, and fully touchless experience” with no wallet or devices required. It is also certified infrastructure, stating PCI DSS and ISO/IEC 27001 compliance, according to the official site.
In the Middle East and Africa, IDCentriq is deploying its ePalm palm-vein authentication for payments. The rollouts are part of IDCentriq’s global growth strategy, with executive chairman and CEO Muhanad Azzeh envisioning contactless identity verification engineered for the needs of government and financial services sectors.
“As we move towards a cashless society, adopting technologies like ePalm will be crucial in fostering consumer confidence and driving growth in the digital payments landscape across the GCC,” said Ali AlMeshal, CEO of PaymentsCo for the GCC, a subsidiary of IDCentriq.
In Singapore, FairPrice Group (FPG) is tantalizing consumers with its Store of Tomorrow (SOT) initiative that shows off the future of retail with AI, automation and biometrics.
The program will pilot more than 20 new digital solutions annually for the next three years ranging from biometric checkout to smart carts and real-time inventory monitoring, according to a report by Tech Coffeehouse.
The first rollout will be at FairPrice Finest in the Punggol Digital District, which opens in the third quarter of this year (sometime between July 1 and September 30). “The only certainty in retail is how quickly consumer needs, tastes, and preferences evolve,” said Vipul Chawla, Group CEO, FairPrice Group.
“Through our Store of Tomorrow programme, we want to reimagine how innovation and technologies like GenAI and data analytics can make things easier on the wallet and experience.”
The modality applied is palm biometrics, with customers able to register their palm prints and link them to their FairPrice app accounts. A simple palm scan will then be enough to pay and earn Linkpoints.
The FPG app is also being integrated with SingPass’ MyInfo service so eligible senior citizens and CHAS cardholders will receive automatic discounts both in-store and online without needing to carry physical cards.
The same trend is visible elsewhere, too. Tencent is considering bringing its palm biometrics scanning to Thailand. In an interview with the Bangkok Post, Tencent Cloud Vice President Jimmy Chen said Thailand is a “key strategic market” and identified strong demand for the burgeoning technology from corporations.
Chen singled out convenience stores as one of the most promising models for the technology, while palm payments could be rolled out across sectors ranging from the public sector and education, to entertainment, retail, financial services, and telecoms.
Face biometrics retail payments launch in Armenia, growing in Russia
Mastercard has expanded its biometric retail payments program to Armenia. The payments giant partnered with AMIO Bank and technology provider FacePass Solutions to introduce the local version of its global retail biometrics platform, and launch it at the Time chain of stores.
Armenians will be able to register their biometric data via the FacePass-AMIO platform, developed in collaboration with Sumsub, and link any Mastercard card as a payment method. Once completed, users will be able to pay using just their face.
“Armenia has always been open to embracing new technology, and with Amio Bank, we are excited to offer a fast, secure, and innovative payment experience for more consumers,” said David Zgudadze, vice president of Mastercard in Georgia and Armenia.
Mastercard launched its Biometric Checkout Program back in 2022 with a face biometrics partnership in Brazil. The program has since expanded to Asia and Europe.
In Russia, a biometric payment system has reached a significant milestone. The “Smile to Pay” retail system developed by the country’s largest bank, Sberbank, has reached a million installations.
The Smile to Pay system, also known as “Pay with a smile,” uses face biometrics, scanning a user’s face and matching it with a unique number linked to their biometric data. The number is connected to the user’s bank account and if the data matches, payment is approved.
Sberbank has ambitious plans for its biometric payment service, and they appear to be having success realizing them. In the first quarter of this year, Russians made more than 37.5 million biometric payments totalling nearly 30 billion rubles (US$380 million), according to Tech Bullion.
“Russia is one of the early adopters of biometric payments, with the technology gaining widespread use,” said Dmitry Malykh, senior vice president and head of transaction banking at Sberbank.
“The results show a shift from the early stages of innovation towards broad acceptance, from the initial adopters to the mainstream,” he said, as reported by Tech Bullion. “Typically, it takes three to four years for such technologies to gain full traction, but we introduced ‘Smile to Pay’ in the summer of 2023.”
Plans are to expand biometric payments nationwide, with major cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg leading the way in adoption, and to create a cross-bank solution that will allow customers of any bank to pay with their face at participating terminals.
In Japan, at the recent Expo 2025 in Osaka, NEC introduced face biometric payments technology to a wider audience. In a YouTube video, NEC boasted that it is the largest in-store payment system in Japan that integrates electronic money and face recognition.
The video shows how face biometric payment works for users of the e-money service Myaku-pe! Users have to register their face biometric and payment method in advance before making payments at designated stores using just their face.
Article Topics
biometric payments | contactless biometrics | face biometrics | HandGo by Autopay | IDCentriq | Mastercard Biometric Checkout Program | NEC | palm biometrics | retail biometrics | Sumsub