Russia’s Sberbank has teamed up with supermarket chain Azbuka Vkusa to let shoppers pay for groceries with their fingerprints, CNews.ru reports.
Once Sberbank customers have registered their biometric data they can leave their wallets and phones at home and pay with their fingers at 20 Azbuka Vkusa stores in Moscow.
Separately, Sberbank says that it has met government requirements to let customers register their biometric data at 20% of its branches.
Once Sberbank customers have registered their biometric data they can leave their wallets and phones at home. At checkout, customers not only tie the fingerprints of two fingers to a bank card of an international payment system VISA or Mastercard, but also confirm the registration with a password.
Furthermore, customers can pay for purchases in all stores where the appropriate equipment is installed. All they need to do is place a finger to a special POS-terminal with a built-in biometric scanner. This enables a seamless payments experience for consumers.
Russia is asking banks to collect voice and face biometric data for a new Unified Biometric System (UBS) and personal data for a Unified Identification and Authentication System (UIAS).
The data, which is stored in the central bank-run UBS, means that Russians can carry out banking activities, such as account opening, fund transfers and loan applications, through their phones and computers.
Banks were told to ensure that customers could register for the service at 20% of their branches by the beginning of this year, rising to 60% by June.
