You may soon get to make card payments with retina scans

Next year, you may be able make payments through an eye or a finger scan, no longer needing your debit/credit card PIN or password.

Though some technology firms have raised security concerns, the RBI had asked all payment infrastructures to facilitate payments through biometric authentication with Aadhaar-enabled terminals from January 1, 2017.

This means that new ATMs and PoS (Point of Sale) merchant terminals are likely to let you authenticate debit/credit card transactions with a fingerprint or retina scan.

“Making payments through biometric with Aadhaar-enabled machines is an added layer of security. We are discussing with the RBI ways to work out the security threats or challenges, if any,” said a senior NPCI official.

“At present, we are enabling 30-35 million transactions per month using biometric through micro-ATMs.” NPCI is the umbrella organisation for all retail payment transactions.

Banks and third-party vendors are sceptical about the move. Recently, 32 debit and credit cards were tampered with, resulting in about ₹1.3 crore being withdrawn from savings bank accounts.

Mumbai-based mobile PoS player and major card payment processor MSwipe’s chief executive officer Manish Patel said, “In Aadhaar-based transactions, there are systemic risks. In case a hacker captures your biometric identity, it takes away the person’s identity and that can never be changed. Global security systems have got hacked, how can we assume that Aadhaar cannot be hacked? Dispute resolution will become difficult.”

Further, huge operating costs to install PoS machines will make it more expensive for banks to provide the service.