By the end of 2020, Russia plans to adopt a law expanding the possibilities of using biometrics, which will allow the banks to introduce facial-payment technology in shops and cafes.

According to Izvestiya, VTB was the first to provide such an opportunity with the help of the Unified Biometric System (UBS) in Lenta supermarkets.

Rostelecom, a UBS operator, is testing the technology with manufacturers of vending machines.

VTB believes that the technology will be convenient for buyers at self-checkouts, which will reduce store personnel costs. Besides, citizens will be able to pay for purchases at a retail outlet, even if they forget their card at home, or their smartphone with pay-service is not charged.

In order to make a facial payment, the client needs to submit data to UBS. According to latest reports, about 150 thousand samples are stored in a unified system. At the same time, banks separately collect face and voice samples in their own databases. For example, according to Sberbank CEO Herman Gref, “millions” of samples are stored in the bank’s system.

“The coronavirus pandemic has multiplied the number of UBS users: over the past six months, the same number of services has been provided through biometrics as in the previous year and a half, Rostelecom said. The company is convinced that biometric payment reduces the service time for one customer at the checkout from 20 to 5 seconds,” Izvestiya writes.

Nevertheless, representative of Deloitte Natalya Tabolina thinks that biometric technologies carry risks of both data leakage and fraudulent purchases. According to her, now it is too dangerous to introduce the technology for both the bank and the seller. On the other hand, in the future, technologies will allow to optimize the work of personnel and attract more and more loyal customers, the expert noted.

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