Evaluation of a Template Protection Approach to Integrate Fingerprint Biometrics in a Pin-Based Payment Infrastructure

Biometric authentication has a great potential to improve the security, reduce cost, and enhance the customer convenience of payment systems. Despite these benefits, biometric authentication has not yet been adopted by large-scale point-of-sale and automated teller machine systems. This paper aims at providing a better understanding of the benefits and limitations associated with the integration of biometrics in a PIN-based payment authentication system. Based on a review of the market drivers and deployment hurdles, a method is proposed in which biometrics can be seamlessly integrated in a PIN-based authentication infrastructure. By binding a fixed binary, renewable string to a noisy biometric sample, the data privacy and interoperability between issuing and acquiring banks can improve considerably compared to conventional biometric approaches.