Mastercard has announced the European roll out of Identity Check Mobile, a new payment app that uses biometric technology such as fingerprints or facial recognition to verify a cardholder’s identity.

Following a series of successful trials in the Netherlands, the US and Canada, the new app is being introduced in the UK, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden. Mastercard stated that the new technology will be rolled out across the world in phases throughout 2017.

Identity Check Mobile is designed to speed up the digital checkout experience for customers, allowing them to verify their identity by using the fingerprint scanner on their smartphone or by taking a selfie photo.

The move comes following research from Mastercard which found that European consumers prefer biometric payments to current systems that rely on passwords. Nine out of 10 respondents indicated that they would like to replace their password with biometric identification, while 75 per cent of users believed that the switch to biometrics would decrease fraud.

Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise risk and security at Mastercard, said: “This is a significant milestone in the evolution of payments. Shopping in person has been revolutionised thanks to advances like contactless cards, mobile payments and wearables, and now we are making Identity Check Mobile a reality for online shopping in Europe, and soon, the world.”

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