IDEMIA and JCB trial of the first F.CODE payment card in Japan – „your fingerprint replaces the PIN code”

As announced at the Taipei JCB World Conference, on November 2, 2017, IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, and JCB, the leading international payment network in Japan, have started the pilot of the first F.CODE Japanese payment card.

“F for fingerprint”: embrace the future of payments with biometrics. „F.CODE takes card payments to the next level since your fingerprint replaces the PIN code and so reinforces user’s security and privacy by ensuring a unique and universal identification.”, the company says.

„F.CODE makes customers and retailers’ lives easier: No need to remember a new PIN code, your fingerprint is enough. On the retailer side, it speeds up the check-out process as well as enabling banks and governments to adopt an innovative and secure technology for the future payment experience. F.CODE will enable seamless payment transactions without compromising security.”, according to the press release.

Once card users have recorded their fingerprints using a smartphone or tablet app, they can make secure purchases at merchants accepting JCB Contactless payments by touching the embedded the fingerprint sensor on the card’s lower right corner.

Recognized for its longstanding expertise and experience in biometrics and payment, IDEMIA has established a strong partnership with JCB regarding payment innovation in Japan. The two companies are proud to offer today, in close partnership with Toppan Printing for the card personalization activity, the “future of payments” to a country always eager to innovate.

„We are really delighted to announce this first launch as part of our strong partnership with JCB. F.CODE is a unique technology that provides highly secured authentication and we are eager to implement it for the first time in Japan.”, says Pierre Barrial, Executive Vice-President of the Financial Institutions Business Unit.

„As the evolution of payment technologies accelerates dramatically, JCB is committed to keep developing various capabilities that can deliver a convenient and more secure payment experience. This pilot program, through our strong partnership with IDEMIA, is to demonstrate a use case of how JCB intends to provide customers with a secure and smooth way of making payments in the future.”, says Tac Watanabe, Executive Vice President of the Brand Infrastructure & Technologies Department.