Canada's TD Bank, MasterCard and tech firm Nymi have completed what they claim is the world's first wearable contactless credit card payment to authenticate the user through their heartbeat.
The firms kicked off a small, 100-person pilot of the contactless wristbands with TD customers in Toronto, Ottawa and Regina. Other Canadian banks are set to conduct their own trials later this year.
The Nymi bracelet has an embedded sensor which recognises the wearer's unique electrocardiogram. For the pilot an NFC-enabled prototype of the band, which is linked to a user's MasterCard, has been developed.
Toronto-based Nymi raised $14 million in a funding round joined by MasterCard last year as it seeks to cash in on the wearable trend and push its ECG-based authentication tech as a way of accessing goods and services, including payments.
Karl Martin, CEO, Nymi, says: "Nymi's goal is to fundamentally change the way authentication is treated and to move industries towards a more secure and convenient identity model. By working with partners like TD and MasterCard, we are effectively demonstrating that continuous authentication can be a more secure and convenient way to make retail payments."