Dive Brief:
- JPMorgan Chase is piloting biometric payments processing with merchants nationwide, including at Whataburger locations where a partnership between the burger chain and PopID lets customers pay with a face scan, according to a Tuesday press release from the bank.
- The biggest U.S. bank’s payments division is locking arms with the biometrics payment firm PopID to aid merchants in speeding up checkouts and boosting customer tabs by way of the new technology, according to the release.
- Pasadena, California-based PopID, which is owned by Cali Group, provides biometric payment services at some 380 U.S. retailers and restaurants, according to the release.
Dive Insight:
Biometric payments are increasingly gaining a foothold in the U.S. as retailers, restaurant owners and other merchants seek to speed up and simplify checkout processes. Still, some retailers, including Amazon, have pulled back on advanced technology to accelerate checkout.
JPMorgan touted its biometric payments processing in the release, latching onto the PopID and Whataburger partnership that was rolled out earlier. JPMorgan’s payments division has also already been providing such processing, starting with South Florida Motorsports, which began using the new payments technology in May at a Miami International Autodrome location.
To use the facial scan payment technology, a consumer takes a picture of his or her face and a template of that image is stored in PopID’s cloud archive for future identification of the customer and payment authorization.
San Antonio, Texas-based Whataburger has more than 1,000 locations across 16 states. It doesn’t yet use the new facial scan technology at all of its venues.
The big bank’s backing will bring “stability, scale and trust” to such transactions, Jean-Marc Thienpont, JPMorgan’s payments’ managing director of omnichannel and biometric solutions, said in the release.
