New customers with a few of China’s major banks are going to get an unusual piece of hardware when they open their accounts: A fitness-tracking wristband.
The wearable device comes from China-based Z-Smart, and features Valencell’s biometric technology. It was developed in collaboration with FinTech specialist Giesecke & Devrient (“G&D”) for a few partners in China’s financial services sector.
The devices will be issued to new customers, with their embedded NFC technology enabling contactless transactions. But given Valencell’s sophisticated biometric technology, they’ll also let the bank customers track their cardiac and calorie data, with each device’s battery life lasting about 30 days, the companies say.
While other companies such as Nymi have been working to pioneer the wearable authentication concept, this new offering is unusual in its emphasis on fitness tracking; in fact in a statement announcing the device, its makers highlighted its use of biometrics solely for this purpose, and not biometric authentication. In any case, it should offer users an easy means of making payments, and an accurate fitness tracker besides.
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