Credit card companies to launch 'finger vein' payment system

Representatives of Shinhan, BC, and Hana Card and their counterparts from IT platform service providers, LG-Hitachi and NICE Information & Telecommunication, hold hands after signing a memorandum of understanding at the LG-Hitachi headquarters in Mapo, northwestern Seoul, on Tuesday. / Courtesy of Shinhan Card

By Lee Suh-yoon

Credit card holders will be able to pay with their fingertips at convenience stores throughout the country, starting in October.

Three major card companies – Shinhan, BC, and Hana Card – announced on Sunday that were developing a biometrics payment system that authorizes transactions by scanning fingertips.

"Payment authorizations based on fingertip veins is both convenient and secure, and we forecast it will become the main biometrics authorization method for offline payments," a Shinhan Card spokesperson said in a joint press release on Sunday.
"We at Shinhan, BC, and Hana Card will try to provide customers with the best service in the future 'deviceless' era where payments will be possible without credit cards or smartphones."

To implement this system, credit card companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with two IT service providers, LG-Hitachi and NICE Information& Telecommunication last Tuesday.

The companies said the payment method would be available at convenience store chains across the country in October.

Fingertip veins, scanned using infrared light, cannot be easily copied like fingerprints, but are just as simple to use.

"It's not just finger vein technology, we are trying to diversify payment methods that can reinforce each other," a Shinhan Card spokesperson told the Korea Times on Sunday.

Lotte Card introduced the vein-mapping payment method when it launched its "hand scan" system in May last year. Lotte Card is also likely to join the other card companies in implementing a finger-scan payment system, according to local media.

Payment systems using finger veins have already been implemented in Japan and parts of Europe and the U.S.

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