EMVCo has launched a ‘Biometric on Card’ initiative

EMVCo has launched a biometric payment card initiative with the aim of producing a performance requirements document and associated approval and evaluation frameworks that will “enable biometric payment cards to deliver both seamless and secure payment experiences”, according to NFC World.

The performance requirements document is anticipated to be published for EMVCo Associate review and input by the end of Q2 2023, chair of the EMVCo CDCVM Task Force Jianhua Ni says. “A Technical Special Interest Meeting is then planned to be held in Q4 2023 to discuss and explore the requirements in detail.”

EMVCo’s Biometric on Card initiative will focus solely on the use of a fingerprint as a biometric authentication mechanism on a payment card, Ni adds.

As an initial first step, EMVCo is developing a performance requirements document to enable biometric payment cards to deliver both seamless and secure payment experiences.

What are biometric performance requirements?

Biometric performance characteristics relate to how well a solution performs in capturing a biometric and matching it with a reference value.

This encompasses various areas and examples of performance metrics under consideration by EMVCo, including:

False Acceptance Rate (FAR) – the proportion of verification transactions with wrongful claims of identity that are incorrectly confirmed.

False Rejection Rate (FRR) – the proportion of verification transactions with truthful claims of identity that are incorrectly denied.

Imposter Attack Presentation Accept Rate (IAPAR) – the proportion of imposter attack presentations using artefacts, such as a fake fingerprint, that are erroneously accepted.

Transaction time – biometric authentication must be completed quickly to promote a seamless and convenient user experience.