Sydney-based electronic payments outfit Keycorp has signed a non-exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Precise Biometrics to develop and market a secure biometric-enabled smart card operating system.
Under the agreement, Precise Biometrics will integrate its BioMatch C technology into Keycorp's Multos operating system, allowing fingerprint matching to be performed at the transaction point.
The fingerprint algorithm is stored on the smart card and matched against the print scanned by the reader.
The companies say they will also work together to develop API standards for the integration of biometrics into the Multos operating system.
Jonas Andersson, manager SmartID, Precise Biometrics, says: "The market for highly secure smartcards for payment and identification is increasing significantly, and this in turn will drive the need to define the standard for biometrics functionality on smartcards."
The new product will be jointly marketed initally in North America, Europe and Asia.