India’s Federal Bank rolls out biometric card payments for e-commerce

Customers can authenticate online purchases with fingerprint or face ID.

Federal Bank, a private sector bank in India, has introduced a biometric authentication solution for e-commerce card transactions.

Developed in partnership with fintechs M2P and MikasuPay, the solution enables Federal Bank’s customers to authenticate online purchases with just their fingerprint or Face ID.

The solution replaces OTPs with biometric verification, reducing transaction times to just 3–4 seconds, while enhancing security, the banks said.

Biometric authentication makes secure payments feel natural and seamless, said Virat Sunil Diwanji, national head – consumer banking, Federal Bank.

The biometric solution is fully compliant with the Reserve Bank of India’s two-factor authentication guidelines, and ensures fallback to OTP in case biometrics are not captured, the Federal Bank said in a press release.

Customers can enroll with a one-time consent during checkout. The solution is said to work across compatible Android and iOS smartphones.