Payments processing giant Fiserv will soon make point-of-sale services available to its Clover merchant clients, for the first time, that let customers pay with their face or palm.
The Milwaukee-based company is adding biometric identity verification to POS services provided by its Clover unit, according to a Wednesday news release. The collaboration with Wink marks the first time Fiserv has embedded biometric payments into Clover, a Fiserv spokesperson said.
“The future of commerce is the unification of payment and identity,” Sanjay Saraf, Fiserv's global chief product officer, said in the release.
Biometric payments and biometric verification use a person's physical characteristics, such as their face or fingerprints, to verify their identity.
Fiserv plans to unveil Clover's face and palm readers at the National Retail Federation's annual conference in New York City, which begins Sunday, and roll it out to Clover customers throughout the year, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Quick-service restaurants, sports venues and retailers will be the first to have access to the biometric readers, the news release said. The Fiserv spokesperson did not immediately answer a follow-up question about specific merchants who will use biometric verification.
The company is offering biometric payments through a collaboration with the financial technology company Wink, which is based in Plano, Texas, and offers payment infrastructure and fraud prevention services.
Wink’s other customers include the Chinese point-of-sale provider PAX Technology, which offers biometric payments with its technology, Wink spokesperson Stephanie Barrueto said in an email. She declined to provide details on other customers using the company’s biometric verification services, citing confidentiality agreements.
Wink has about 50 employees, Barrueto said, but she declined to say how much money the private company has raised or provide information about its revenue.
Consumers who have already verified their identity through Wink's software can scan their face or palm using a scanner installed at the point of sale and Clover will automatically charge their preferred payment method.
The face and palm scanners are intended to speed checkout times and reduce fraud, the release said.
