RBS to test biometric fingerprint bank cards to replace PINs

Only 200 customers will be involved in the first phase of the fingerprint-card trial

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to trial biometric fingerprint bank cards to enable customers to complete purchases using just their fingerprints.

The cards will be equipped with the user's biometrics, matching each card with the unique fingerprint of a user. Adoption of this payment technology in future will improve the level of security in banking transactions and also protect customers from banking frauds.

According to the BBC, RBS will start the trial in the next month and complete it by June. The customers participating in the trial won't need a PIN to authenticate transactions worth more than £30 - the current limit for contactless payments.

Instead of keying in their four-digit PIN to complete the transaction, they will touch one corner of the card featuring a built-in sensor with their finger

In the first phase of the trial, RBS will issue biometric cards to 200 customers in the UK. The bank will take fingerprints of all those customers, and store the fingerprints onto the biometric cards to be issued to customers.

When doing a transaction, customers will insert their card in the machine in the normal way. But, instead of keying-in their four-digit PIN to complete the transaction, they will touch one corner of the card featuring a built-in sensor with their finger.

The sensor, powered by payment terminals, will match the user's scanned fingerprint with the data stored on the card. If the fingerprints match, the payment will be completed.

RBS has partnered with digital security firm Gemalto, as well as MasterCard and Visa, for the trial. MasterCard and Visa have already completed similar trials in Cyprus, South Africa and Bulgaria, although it will be the first such trial in the UK.

According to Gemalto, customers' fingerprint data is stored only on the card and is never provided to third parties or even to the bank. The data inside the card is encrypted and not accessible to anybody else.

This, perhaps, therefore means that were it to be rolled out, banks would need to ensure that security around card issuing is tight to prevent identity thieves from acquiring other people's cards - especially if no corroborating fingerprint is taken and held by the bank.

RBS is expected to release further details of this project in the coming days. Depending on the results of the pilot project, RBS may roll out the technology to a larger customer base in the UK later in the year.