At the Finopolis forum in November they plan to show payment for biometrics using EBS

In a month, it is planned to show payment for biometrics using a unified biometric system (UBS) on the Finopolis forum. According to Kommersant’s sources, the payment will be made using the fast payment system and the SBPay application. According to experts, no technological problems are expected in the process of introducing bioacquiring; the main challenge will be psychology. Citizens are still very distrustful of biometrics; they do not want to submit it and transfer it to the EBS, not to mention use it for payments.

As Kommersant learned, at the Finopolis forum of innovative financial technologies, which will be held in early November, the Bank of Russia, the National Payment Card System (NSCP) and the Center for Biometric Technologies (CBT, operator of the EBS) plan to show payment using bioacquiring using a single biometric systems.

“This opportunity is indeed planned to be shown at Finopolis; preparations are now underway for the pilot; together with the NSPK and the Central Bank, the first test transactions have been successfully carried out,” the Central Bank confirmed. The CBT also noted that testing of the technology continues, with the first trial transactions successfully carried out.

As a source familiar with the process of preparing the pilot project told Kommersant, the solution will be based on the technology of the fast payment system (FPS). For the online payment scenario, SBPay will be used, and the buyer’s face will be scanned by the camera of his smartphone. In this case, banks will not have to change anything; the entire upgrade for the buyer will be made by NSPK, which will carry out the modernization and automatically update the SBPay application.

When paying offline, according to the source, the option of scanning the face with a camera, which will be installed specifically for this purpose at store checkouts and integrated into the cash register interface, is being considered. To be able to make a payment using biometrics, a citizen must allow this in his personal account on State Services.

The main problem in the latter case, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor, remains the security of the transaction: since the payment takes place with single-factor authentication, without additional payment confirmation.

To reduce the risk of fraud, according to a Kommersant source, it is planned to introduce a limit on payments for bioacquiring, following the example of payments by card without entering a PIN code: up to a certain amount, payment will be made to the person, and above it – as a regular SBP payment, via QR -code or contactless using SBPay. In the case of scanning a face using a smartphone, the SBPay application itself acts as the second authentication factor, since to enter it you need to enter a password or log in using your face or fingerprint, explains Kommersant’s interlocutor.

However, according to another Kommersant source, the main scenario is now considered to be the option of scanning the face with a special camera at the checkout and a terminal on which you can display a QR code for paying for expensive goods that exceed the price limit for bioacquiring. According to him, such terminals are already on the market, and their cost does not exceed $100.

Experts note that, taking into account existing examples of technical implementation of bioacquiring, there are no significant problems with the launch of the project. “The problem is not in technical implementation, but in clients,” says Roman Prokhorov, head of the Financial Innovations Association.

According to a Kommersant source in the banking market, today only 380 thousand images are represented in the EBS. Even if it manages to upload tens of millions of images collected by banks, this does not mean that all clients will agree to payment using biometrics, he points out.

Bioacquiring involves too much modification of the client scenario. “Phone, card, cash – you hold them in your hand and control them, you can hide them and make them inaccessible to the seller,” notes independent expert on the payment market Maxim Mitusov. “With a biometric payment, you cannot hide from a facial scan while standing at the checkout, and this super-simplicity becomes the downside and for many will become the same horror story as GMOs,” he notes.

In addition, since the technology provides SBP “under the hood,” “it has the same disadvantage compared to traditional acquiring – the lack of clear cashbacks,” explains Roman Prokhorov.

Maxim Builov, Olga Sherunkova