OSLO: IDEX Biometrics ASA, a leading provider of advanced fingerprint identification and authentication solutions, announced that its dual interface technology is included in FEITIAN Technologies Co., Ltd.’s certified biometric contactless payment card solution.

FEITIAN is one of the world’s leading suppliers of smartcard operating system and digital security system solutions serving more than 200 banks and 6,000 customers in over 100 countries. This is the first biometric payment card in the world to successfully complete the Bank Card Testing Center (BCTC) testing to China UnionPay requirements. UnionPay (also known as CUP or UPI) is the world’s largest card network with more than 7 billion cards issued.

The certification was conducted by the BCTC in Beijing, a widely accredited international third-party testing and certification facility. The certification process included testing for card structure robustness, security and biometric performance, and IDEX’s hardware, software and algorithm were an essential part of this process.

This is a critical, and very difficult milestone that IDEX and FEITIAN achieved and it verifies the readiness of the solution and enables any issuer to work with FEITIAN to issue China UnionPay cards, paving the way for broad market adoption.

IDEX and FEITIAN have a strategic partnership which includes an exclusive agreement for the sale of biometric payment cards. IDEX Biometrics’s CEO, Vince Graziani commented, “This is a significant achievement for IDEX and our partner FEITIAN to have the first biometric payment card tested by BCTC to the China UnionPay specification.

UnionPay is the highest volume payment card network in the world. This certification is the result of over a year’s collaboration and work between IDEX and FEITIAN and represents a major milestone on the path to global adoption of biometric payment cards.” Vince continued, “The total addressable market for biometric payment cards is 8.2 billion units and growing.”

Yan Yan, Vice President of Product at FEITIAN commented, “We are pleased to be the first card manufacturer to have a biometric payment card tested to China UnionPay’s exacting standards. Our ability to complete this major milestone validates our decision to choose the IDEX solution and is an important step in our continued cooperation. We are looking forward to the next phase of moving to commercialization of biometric smartcards for our new and existing customers.”