FAQ | Zwipe

Zwipe
Zwipe Pay Zwipe Access
Enrollment Zwipe’s technology

Zwipe

What is Zwipe’s position in the value chain?

Zwipe is positioned as a system integrator and an enabler of contactless biometric authentication without the use of batteries. We buy components from various suppliers to build, offer and sell our modular Zwipe Pay platform to smart card manufacturers who laminate the cards and embed the biometric contact plate module and sensor in the card. Then the cards are personalized and sold on to banks as part of a total fulfillment delivery with the requested solution for enrollment.

What is Zwipe’s USP?

Zwipe is a pioneer in the field of biometric payments, access control and ID, focusing on cards and wearables. Our customers choose Zwipe because of a combination of technology and performance leadership and an end-to-end, one-stop shop offering. We are dedicated to adding value to our customers thanks to our full focus on biometric authentication for payment and access control and ID. As a result of this, the company has built a strong network of customers and partners across the payment and access control & ID ecosystems.

Our flagship payment platform features a single silicon secure element which integrates into one chip the many components that were needed on previous generation biometric payment cards. This radically reduces technology and manufacturing costs, while also improving performance and reliability.

What are the key advantages of Zwipe’s offering?

Zwipe's offering is a unique mix of products and services enabling our customers to integrate biometrics easily and seamlessly in payment and access control products with a wide range of enrolment solutions. Our focus on user experience and live-environment piloting have given us an edge in tailoring our product offering to our growing customer network.

What is Zwipe’s core technology and product?

Our core technology is focused along three central areas: energy harvesting and power management systems, biometric authentication algorithms, and development of large-scale production methods.

For which product forms and markets does Zwipe provide solutions?

Zwipe's biometric platform can be embedded in a wide range of form factors. Our current focus is on card and wearable products within payments, access control and ID.

What are the key problems that Zwipe addresses?

The payments ecosystem is constantly trying to manage the inherent trade-off between security and convenience. Often, making a system more secure means making it less convenient to use and vice versa. For example, regulatory authorities and issuers have imposed contactless transaction limits, capping the amount you can spend without cardholder verification.

Requiring cardholders to enter their PIN after holding their card to the terminal introduces friction to the payment process and, after the Corona pandemic, cardholders are reluctant to touch the PIN pad for hygiene reasons. Biometric payment cards based on Zwipe technology eliminate these issues without compromising security. Zwipe's technology does not require a centralized database: the user's biometric information is encrypted and safely stored on the card and nowhere else, protecting the user's right to privacy.

Zwipe Pay

What is a biometric payment card?

A biometric payment card is a dual-interface (contact-based and contactless) payment card with an integrated fingerprint sensor enabling the use of your fingerprint as the primary form of authentication for payments.

How does Zwipe enable biometric payment cards?

Zwipe has developed designs and specifications for biometric payment card enrollment kits. Cardholders may receive their biometric cards and enrollment kit in the mail, much like they are used to with their existing payment cards, so that they can complete fingerprint registration conveniently at home.

Zwipe's portfolio for enrollment includes enrollment sleeves, envelopes, and value-added packaging. Zwipe also offers in-branch and mobile phone-based enrollment.

The world is embracing mobile payments. So, why should we consider biometric card-based payments?

The reality is that the majority of point-of-sale payments are still made using payment cards, often out of habit and because it is perceived to be convenient. As the saying goes, "old habits are hard to break".

Global payment card volumes are projected to grow for the foreseeable future and biometric payment cards may actually drive and extend this trend. Meanwhile, many leading suppliers of mobile wallets have already introduced payment cards, most notably Klarna, Stripe, Uber, Paytm, Apple, etc.

We believe that issuers will want to offer consumers different payment alternatives for different purposes to provide a better customer experience. Our technology provides a great experience to the end user at the point of sale because it is quick, seamless, reliable and works everywhere without a battery.

From a wear and tear perspective, how resilient and robust is a biometric payment card?

A biometric payment card follows the same standards for resilience and robustness as a standard dual-interface (non-biometric) payment card, meaning that it has a product lifetime of 3 to 5 years.

For “contact payments”, will consumers use their fingerprint or will they use their PIN code as in standard dual-interface payment cards?

The card issuer may set biometric cardholder verification as the primary cardholder verification method for contact-based payments (as would be the case for contactless payments). In this case, offline or online PIN may be used as fallback.

Do consumers need to use their fingerprint to authenticate payment for all transaction values?

The card issuer defines the available cardholder verification methods. It is recommended to set fingerprint verification as the primary cardholder verification method with offline or online PIN as fallback. We recommend issuers to configure the cards to always require fingerprint verification.

Zwipe Access

What biometric performance does Zwipe Access achieve?

False Accept Rate (FAR) / and False Reject Rate (FRR) exceed payment scheme specifications (VISA and Mastercard). The FRR is comfortably below 3% for 0.01% FAR (1:10,000). The algorithm also provides presentation attack detection (“anti-spoofing”), per latest payment scheme requirements.

How is the fingerprint biometric data stored and secured on Zwipe Access?

Zwipe Access doesn’t store the full user's fingerprint but only an abstract representation of the characteristic features extracted from the captured fingerprint images. This is called a biometric template.

The registration of the cardholder’s fingerprint(s) is called enrollment.

During the enrollment, the fingerprint sensor passes the captured fingerprint images to the biometric secure element (SE) using a secure channel. The biometric secure element then extracts and securely stores the biometric reference data. After this process is completed, all the captured images are deleted and only the extracted biometric reference template is stored in the Zwipe Access card secure memory.

Likewise, during later verifications, a freshly captured image is passed in over a secure channel from the fingerprint sensor to the secure element. The secure element then extracts another fingerprint template (called the probe template) and compares it with the reference template. An accredited 3rd party laboratory has reviewed this architecture and performed tests per EMVCo, Visa, and Mastercard requirements.

What is Zwipe Access?

Zwipe Access is a card-based fingerprint access control solution. Zwipe Access doesn’t require an additional biometric reader because fingerprint capture, feature extraction, and biometric comparison are performed within the Zwipe Access card.

Zwipe Access enables two-factor authentication with biometrics without the need of an additional fingerprint reader, where the card verifies the cardholder identity, and the access control system verifies the card’s authenticity and integrity.

How is Zwipe Access different from other Biometric Access Card Solutions?

Zwipe Access relies on a single silicon design. The whole biometric cardholder identification process (fingerprint capture, processing, extraction, storage and comparison) is performed within the Zwipe Access card. This means that the cardholder’s biometric data never leaves the card providing increased data privacy to the cardholder.

Does Zwipe Access use a battery like other Biometric Access Card Solutions?

Zwipe Access does not require a battery to operate. It operates based on the power harnessed from the RF field of the access control reader.

Has Zwipe Access undergone any tests for durability?

Zwipe Access & Zwipe Pay share the same hardware platform which has undergone the extensive durability testing mandated by payment schemes (Visa & Mastercard) for the daily usage of payment cards.

Can I import biometric templates that are already captured externally into Zwipe Access?

The import of biometric templates to Zwipe Access is not supported for security reasons. Zwipe Access was developed to capture, process, and store fingerprint data exclusively in the card and without the need of an external fingerprint reader.

Enrollment

Can enrollment be completed in branch?

Yes, Zwipe offers tablet-based in-branch enrollment solutions. This is especially attractive for serving customers with a personal touch from the banks and also for financial inclusion programs.

Can fingerprint enrollment be completed using a mobile phone?

Yes, Zwipe is developing a mobile phone app for enrollment. The app uses the phone’s in-built NFC interface to contactlessly power up and communicate with the card.

Does the enrolled finger need to be used when using the card?

Yes, because the fingerprint on each finger is different.

If the enrollment kit and biometric card are intercepted by another person, can they enroll their fingerprint on the card and start using it?

The enrollment kit simply provides the necessary power to enable the card to turn on and register the fingerprint from the user, as part of the enrollment process. There is nothing connecting the kit specifically to the cardholder. While any user who intercepts the enrollment kit and the biometric card can enroll his/ her fingerprint, s/he cannot use the card as the card will be activated in the first transaction with the PIN code. The PIN code will be sent to the rightful cardholder in a separate channel and/or time.

If my card is lost or stolen, can someone de-enroll my fingerprint and enroll their own fingerprint on my card after I have enrolled and activated it?

No. After enrollment, your biometric payment card is programmed to lock completely. It will not be possible to de-enroll your fingerprint or enroll any other fingerprint on your card after you have enrolled your finger on the card.

Zwipe’s technology

No items found.

FAQs

How can we help you?