VTB Bank, Moscow Metro Testing Ride Payments Using Face Pay

VTB and the Moscow Metro are rolling out a new program that allows metro riders to pay their fares using biometric data at all stations in October using the Face Pay system, which allows customers to travel with facial recognition technology and high processing volumes.

Customers submit their biometric data and link their bank cards, where the fares are debited as customers pass through the turnstile. About 15,000 passengers use Face Pay to travel on four Moscow Metro lines.

“It sounds fantastical, but about six years ago, it was only possible to pay for travel with a bank card at one turnstile in the entire metro,” said Maxim Liksutov, head of the Moscow Department of Transport. “Facial recognition testing for fare payment is in full swing. Soon we will connect all the remaining lines, and as the Moscow mayor said, in October, we will make it available on the entire metro.”

“We have previously provided the technical possibility of seamless transfers from one mode of transport to another, implemented payment for travel using bank cards and [the] payment services Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Mir Pay and Apple Pay,” said Vadim Izotov, head of the department for development and maintenance of special electronic products, and senior vice president of VTB Bank. “Today we are able to go further, by offering passengers the use of technology of the future for travel: face biometrics. The new service will make travel safer and more convenient.”

Related: VTB Rolls out Blockchain Airline Fuel Payments

In March, VTB Bank unveiled a new way for airlines to pay for fuel via blockchain. Users connect to the blockchain platform Smart Fuel, cutting a process that once took four or five days down to mere minutes. Gazpromneft-Aero, operator of Gazprom Neft’s aviation refueling business, runs Smart Fuel.

Victoria Vanurina, senior vice president at VTB Bank and adviser to the first deputy president and chair of the VTB Bank Management Board, said the project was “an excellent example of how a combination of industry, technology and financial expertise can benefit all the sides involved.”