“Trophées des Cartes innovantes 2017”: IDEMIA and CB awarded for the F.CODE biometric payment card

As the number of contactless card payments continues to grow*, IDEMIA devised F.CODE Comfort, the card that uses biometric fingerprints to identify its holder, thus opening the way to raising the limit on contactless payments currently set at €30 per transaction on the French market.

F.CODE Comfort is equipped with an integrated digital fingerprint reader providing instant authentication of the cardholder on each contactless payment. This cutting-edge technology, thoroughly tested in the Lab by CB, received the accolade of e-money and payment professionals at the industry’s annual card innovation awards, the Trophées des cartes innovantes.

Above all else, IDEMIA’s F.CODE Comfort card guarantees payment security for users, alleviating potential consumer fears regarding contactless payment: the authentication generated by the biometric fingerprint frees cardholders to carry out transactions with no other payment limit than that on the card itself. The system itself is really simple to use and encourages cardholders to make more frequent use of this fast, secure and eminently practical means of payment.

Because the payment solution is so closely linked to its holder, whose identity is authenticated with every transaction, it offers the added advantage of restricting stil further the opportunities for fraud.

It is a great honour to have been awarded the ‘Security – Identification – Authentication’ trophy for our F.CODE card, as a mark of recognition from sector professionals. This innovative payment solution, which we have tested in partnership with CB, speaks directly to our mission, which is to empower consumers in an increasingly digital world to pay, identify themselves and communicate with optimum security but, above all, with the maximum simplicity.
Eric Duforest, Executive Vice-President of Financial Institutions activities at IDEMIA

This new-generation card is designed to extend contactless payment to higher payment thresholds thanks to biometric authentication. It is currently being trialled via LAB by CB and we are working in particular on the smoothest, but also the most secure, fingerprint enrolment process possible.
Philippe Lalaunie, CB CEO

* Since January 2017, the number of contactless CB transactions hit 1 billion on 16 November 2017 (source: www.cartes-bancaires.com)