The credit card will become biometric and will dematerialize

This small rectangle of plastic, which has become the preferred means of payment of the French since 2003, will survive to the digital wave ? The subject was at the heart of the debates of the Forum CB organized this Thursday by the Group credit cards in Paris. The chairman of the board of management of the GIE, Pascal Célérier, also deputy director general of Credit Agricole sa, in charge of the pole functioning and transformation, has argued that the use of the card is far from being in decline :

“The digital will it kill the credit card ? This is the theory of some, but in practice it is found that the CB has never been so well supported, with more than 12 billion transactions in 2016 and nearly 600 billion euros of turnover, that is to say 40% of the expenditures of internal consumption of French households, ” noted Pascal Célérier.

“The bankers know how to dematerialize, the card has been dematerialized and teleported into the smartphone, for example with Paylib. The card is not plastic, it is the technical system of combating fraud and the acceptance network “, he stressed.

However, the solution of the franco-French Paylib online payment is not universal : designed at the outset by the BNP, Société Générale and la Banque Postale, joined by Crédit Agricole, the Banques populaires and Caisses d’epargne and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, it has been extended to the mobile payment (Android), without contact in the store. It takes off very gently : she approaches the million users on more than 40 million holders of cards. Paylib must, in particular, face competition from Paypal, but also of all the proprietary solutions such as Apple Pay for the iPhone (the usage data are confidential), Android Pay, and Samsung Pay.

Silver plastic and fingerprint

The Grouping Bank Cards does not have statistics on mobile payments, which is recognized by the terminal in the store, such as a contactless transaction. However, the French are clearly put in no-contact, which explodes : the number of transactions is growing at three digits, and has doubled in the last year. It is expected to exceed the billion on the year as a whole and of the order of 11 billion euros.

The gradual transition from the ceiling without a code of 20 to 30 euros, now official, but only for newly issued cards, will further boost the uses. However, an innovation will soon be able to overcome this threshold and the code : the card is biometric. Presented to the Forum CB, this card, developed by Oberthur Technologies, Morpho (recently renamed Idemia), incorporates a fingerprint reader but it is not thicker than a conventional card, therefore, compatible with the existing terminals.

Still in the prototype stage, this card biometric contactless will be the subject of pilots with customers “in the know” in the course of 2018. This addition of biometrics could convince the final consumers reluctant to use the without contact, so that fraud cases are, however, ” characterized almost exclusively by the theft of the card and without vulnerability technology proven on this channel of payment “, according to the observatory of the security of means of payments of the Bank of France.

Real-time payment

However, biometrics is rather well perceived by the French. According to the latest annual survey of Digital Payments Study Visa, 79% of French consumers consider that ” the biometric solutions offer a safe way authentication “, and, as the baby-boomers than for Millennials. The scan of the fingerprints and the iris of the eye are perceived as “the most secure means of biometric authentication” (71% and 68%, respectively).

This technology could, therefore, give a new youth to the card. However, the arrival of instant payment in Europe next year and could make the competition. This transfer in real-time, irrevocable, will be well received by traders, but will be without a doubt more popular for money transfers between individuals and for large purchases, as some cards allow the deferred debit.

“The Moment Payment is going to find its use, there will be rather a cohabitation than a real competition,” said Loÿs Moulin, the director of development of the Group CB.

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