SmartMetric, Inc. (OTC: SMME), according to Visa, amongst the surveyed American consumers in 2017, 65.0% of the consumers were familiar with biometrics and almost 86.0% of the consumers were interested in making use of biometrics to verify identity and make payments. ¹

Unfortunately for consumers, a few premature and ill thought-through rollouts of biometric credit cards in Europe have met with consumer resistance. It is not because consumers are not interested in enhanced credit card security using biometric technology built inside the card, but rather the cards used in these trials failed to make the experience simple and frictionless for the card user.

First point of resistance is that card users needed to go into a bank and use a fingerprint scanner in the bank to register their fingerprint on the biometric card. This in a day and age when consumers hardly ever visit a bank branch, including receiving their credit cards via mail. The strange thing is that banking is done on mobile phones that may or may not use biometrics, but if biometrics is used, it is very simple for a consumer to register their fingerprint on their phone. No need to visit a bank branch and give your fingerprint to the bank.

“In making enrollment of a person’s fingerprint onto their biometric card requiring a visit to a bank made such trials ready to fail from the beginning,” said SmartMetric’s President and CEO, Chaya Hendrick.

Another failure point was the fact that a person needed to hold their card inside a reader, since these biometric trial cards did not have their own internal power, but rather used the power of the card reader to power the on-card fingerprint matching process.

“The biggest problem with card reader power-dependent cards is that in many situations the card reader requires full insertion into the reader, thereby not allowing the card holder to hold the card;s fingerprint sensor to perform an on-card fingerprint scan, making such non-powered cards unusable in many credit card use situations,” said Chaya Hendrick.

The SmartMetric biometric card solves all these issues. Having its own internal rechargeable battery, it allows the card to work at home for initial secure fingerprint enrollment. As simple as enrolling your fingerprint on a smartphone. As well as being self-powered, the card scans the user's fingerprint prior to being inserted into a reader, allowing the card to be used at any credit card reader. The card user simply touches the card's fingerprint sensor and instantly the fingerprint is scanned and matched, which in turn activates the card's contact and contactless NFC chip.

The global biometric payment cards market size was valued at USD 74.4 million in 2021.

It is projected to reach USD 5.8 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 62.50% during the forecast period (2022–2030).²

“We at SmartMetric are excited about the future substantial growth and demand for credit and debit cards that have built inside biometric fingerprint detection and activation, such as what we have created,” said SmartMetric’s President and CEO, Chaya Hendrick.

The SmartMetric biometric fingerprint scanning credit card is unique in the world, in that it is the first and only such card that has an inbuilt rechargeable battery, allowing the card to be used at any type of credit card reader, including contactless and ATM readers.

Inside the card is also a hardware engineered solution that senses when an actual live fingerprint is used on the card that foils fake fingerprints from thieves.

“Our amazing fingerprint activated biometric credit card is years ahead of anyone else, and will provide a quantum leap in anti-credit card fraud for banks and consumers alike,” said Chaya Hendrick.

A fingerprint scan credit card is a type of biometric card that uses a built-in fingerprint scanner to verify the identity of the cardholder when they try to make a payment. This technology is designed to enhance the security and convenience of credit card transactions, especially for contactless payments, as well as standard contact payments and ATM transactions.

It has taken years of research and development to perfect the internal power system within the SmartMetric finger scan card. Millions of dollars in research and development have been invested to create the only card of its kind in the world that will work at all card readers. A card that is simple to download your fingerprint into the card at home without the fear and inconvenience of going somewhere else to have your fingerprint scanned and stored into the card.

The SmartMetric fingerprint scanner inside the card is light years ahead, and brings the reality of full biometric security technology to the ubiquitous credit and debit card world.

Credit cards still dominate the way consumer make payments. Non-credit card payments such as phones account for less than 5% of payment transactions, while the majority of transactions are done using either a credit or debit card.

According to a report published by Forbes Adviser on March 9, 2023, “Over the past year, nearly half the population (47.5%) opened at least one new account, bringing the total number of accounts to over 518 million by the end of 2022.”³

¹ Biometric Payment Cards Market Size Report, 2022 - 2030 (grandviewresearch.com)

² Biometric Payment Cards Market Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Forecast 2030 (straitsresearch.com)

³ Credit Card Statistics And Trends 2024 – Forbes Advisor

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