Mastercard has announced that within two years its newly issued cards will lack a magnetic stripe
Mastercard has announced that within two years its newly issued cards will lack a magnetic stripe. Those that still have it will coexist with the new generation until approximately 2033, the date on which the company hopes that its partners (businesses) will be in a position to definitively leave behind a technology born in the sixties.
The change, which will not occur at the same pace in all the markets where Mastercard operates, will give way to so-called biometric cards, which combine fingerprints with chips to verify the identity of the cardholder, offering an additional layer of security.
Before being activated, the card will register (and encrypt) the owner’s fingerprint on its chip, so that later, when making any payment, it will be enough for the user to place the finger whose fingerprint the chip knows on it. If the reading matches the saved record, the card will be activated to allow payment. The fingerprint is only saved on the card chip (neither the bank nor the cloud) which makes it difficult to clone.
The transaction is completed by inserting the card in the POS (the merchant’s reader) or by simply bringing it closer to it, which for both merchants and cardholders, in addition to improving security, means speeding up payments.
Cards that have this technology will not require a PIN, although this can also be used if the user cannot place the fingertip on the card reader or has suffered an injury that prevents the correct comparison of the fingerprint.