Qatar National Bank (QNB) has launched a new biometric payment acceptance solution based on facial verification for its merchants in the country.
The solution, which has been developed by PopID, provisioned through QNB’s acceptance network, and supported by Visa via tokenisation, is designed to help merchants with outlets in Qatar offer its customers greater convenience and security when accepting payments.
Through the technology customers can authenticate payments for goods and services via facial verification, without a physical card or mobile phone after initial enrollment.
Mr. Adel Al-Malki, Senior Executive Vice President – Group Retail Banking, said in a statement that the bank was the first in Qatar “in another innovation that augments the already rich range of payment options that includes functionality such as contactless payments, QNB “MyPOS” (Tap on Phone payment acceptance) and Samsung,Google,Apple Pay, to mention a few.”
As a one-time sign-up, users must create their profile by taking a selfie using their smartphone, before entering their phone number and card details. The technology then tokenises the card number and securely links it to the facial biometric template.
According to QNB, merchants will offer in-store sign-up using a QR capability.
John Miller, CEO of PopID and its parent company, Cali Group added, “In America and Japan, we have demonstrated that allowing consumers to link PopPay to loyalty accounts and payment methods substantially increases speed of ordering and check out, drives loyalty engagement, and reduces fraud. We are excited to work with Visa and QNB to bring this loyalty and payment platform to businesses and consumers in Qatar.”
