Samsung Preps Launch Of Fingerprint ID Mobile Payment Service

The touch-identification crazy is sweeping across some of the largest technology conglomerates. Most notably, Apple included the new iPhone 5s with Touch ID capabilities, but other corporations like American Express and Zappos have utilized the innovation for their own financial and commerce services.

But as the Apple rival is wont to do, Samsung revealed new plans to launch its own fingerprint scanning technology in its digital payment efforts. According to reports released Monday (April 20), Samsung’s IT service unit Samsung SDS said it is working with South Korean payment gateway firms KG Mobilians and KG Inicis to introduce a fingerprint digital payment service. While the tool will first launch in South Korea, reports said Samsung is planning an eventual global rollout.

The technology, a biometrics authentication solution, is certified by the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance and thus complies with international standards for online identification, reports said. Microsoft, PayPal and Google are all also FIDO Ready members.

Further, Samsung has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Korea Information certificate Authority to secure a license of the technology.

This won’t be the last launch of biometrics authentication tools for Samsung. “Going forward, we plan to not only target hardware manufacturers that make smartphones, but also provide our biometric solutions to online service and security companies,” said a spokesperson for the technology firm. “We plan to offer clients that need biometrics solution with various business models and offer differentiated authentication services.”

Biometric authentication, the company said, is the way of the future as traditional online authentication mechanisms like passwords and certificates reduce their presence and become replaced by FIDO-approved innovations. “FIDO-backed biometric authentications will become the de facto standard of the future,” the firm said.

While Samsung did not divulge into exactly how the technology works, reports said that the tool will use fingerprint, voice and iris recognition.

Earlier this month, Samsung announced that it had signed an exclusive licensing agreement with SRI International to introduce iris recognition technology, called Iris on the Move, into Samsung mobile devices for B2B apps. Its new biometrics ID technology, however, is reportedly meant for digital payments technology, meaning it will likely be integrated into the company’s expected new Samsung Pay service, the reported result of Samsung’s February acquisition of LoopPay.