The Future of Credit-Card ID Verification

Starting September 2019 in the European Union, a large portion of online payments greater than €30 (currently about $35) will require multifactor authentication. Consumers will need to use two of three things to verify transactions: something they know, like a password; something they have, like a digital device, perhaps a USB token, that identifies them; or something they are: biometric data. Proofs based on physical characteristics, like fingerprints and faces, are slowly becoming more common. This legislation will likely cause them to surge. Most consumers using biometrics will likely do so on their phones, many of which already have technology that payment-service providers will use to verify payments--such as Apple Inc.'s Touch ID fingerprint sensors or Face ID facial-recognition software on its iPhones.