Click selfie to pay your bills with MasterCard

New York, Feb 23: MasterCard may soon introduce a face recognition system that pays bills after user clicks a selfie and blinks in 14 other countries, apart from the US where it is currently on trial.

"When making a purchase online from a merchant that requires identity verification, cardholders can authorise the transaction by holding up their phones as if taking a selfie and blinking - which ensures the cardholder is a live person, not just a photograph -- instead inputting a password or PIN," Fortune reported.

Thought as a more secure way than password, selfie pay is intended to ease the process of verifying transactions as consumers make more purchases online and on mobile devices.

Mastercard wants to cut down false declines, which occur when a legitimate transaction is rejected because of suspected fraud. These declines cost the company nearly $118 billion per year -- 13 times more than the cost of actual fraud, the report said.

A few days ago, HSBC said it was upping its security measures by introducing biometic banking options like voice recognition and touch identification to replace traditional passwords.

Meanwhile, Barclays introduced voice recognition to its private banking division in 2013, and Apple Pay is already allowing customers to process a purchase on a stored credit card with a fingerprint.

Mastercard is also reportedly developing an even more intimate way for customers to verify their identity: with their heartbeats.

IANS