Precise Biometrics Teams Up With NXP For Smart Cards

With the growth of contactless payments, Precise Biometrics is teaming up with NXP Semiconductors for a smart card solution. Precise BioMatch® Card software will be integrated into NXP’s contactless biometric smart cards with the collaboration, Precise said in an announcement.

“We see contactless payments growing rapidly, and our combined solution significantly improves convenience for consumers while increasing the security of payments,” Torgny Hellström, chairman of the board of directors at Precise Biometrics, said in the announcement.

Precise said the solution provides banks and network operations with a fast and secure payment option for consumers. With the solution, cardholder authentication is done with a fingerprint: A cardholder places his or her finger on the smart card. As a result, Precise said payments are faster and easier for consumers. The partnership is also projected to generate license, support and royalty revenues for Precise.

The news comes as NXP said on Monday (June 4) that, in collaboration with Mastercard and Visa, it has launched mWallet 2GO, aimed at offering a secure end-to-end payments solution that helps original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their development teams bring payments functions to all manner of devices, across wearables, mobile devices and the Internet of Things. The overarching theme is one of streamlining costs and time to market as consumers expect payments to be intuitive, available anytime and across any number of hardware conduits.

NXP said Monday that the mWallet 2GO service builds on silicon offerings and integrates far-flung technologies, from near-field communications to application software development kits to Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) to Visa Token Service for account provisioning.

Among the first companies to deploy the payment solutions was Montblanc, the German luxury goods manufacturer. The firm is launching a mobile wallet solution tied to mWallet 2GO that, in turn, is connected to its new TWIN Smart Strap. That strap, said Montblanc in a joint statement with NXP, enables payments capabilities on the company’s luxury watches.