Payment Cards, COVID-19, Smart Glasses and More in This Week’s Top Stories Roundup

It’s been another varied week in Mobile ID World news, but this week’s top stories roundup features payment cards as a notable theme, with, of course, an appearance from the topic of COVID-19.

This week brought the news that China UnionPay has offered a Letter of Approval for a biometric payment card featuring IDEX Biometrics technology. This certification may open the door to major opportunities in the China market for IDEX:

China UnionPay Gives ‘Letter of Approval’ for Biometric Payment Card

Mobile ID World readers also proved interested in ABI Research’s prediction that the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate interest in contactless payment cards – a sentiment that has been echoed by companies involved in the development of biometric payment cards that use fingerprint authentication to secure such transactions:

ABI Predicts COVID-19 will Lead to More Contactless Payment Cards

Somewhat related to that topic is new research from Javelin indicating that online fraud remains a serious problem for financial services providers. The report arrives at a time when a number of security solutions providers are reporting significantly increased fraud activity amid the uptick in the use of remote services due to COVID-19:

Javelin Report Shows Higher Account Takeover Fraud in 2019

Readers were interested in other topics, too, of course, with connected wearables remaining a favorite: another of this week’s top stories was the news that Vuzix and NNTC had added 4G and 5G capabilities to their smart glasses solution:

4G/5G Capabilities Among iFalcon AR Smart Glasses Upgrades

And finally, the FIDO Alliance announced two new white papers this week aimed at illustrating for businesses and government agencies how they can use FIDO2 authentication standards to comply with the European Union’s eIDAS standards:

FIDO Alliance Publishes Two eIDAS White Papers

*

Stay posted to Mobile ID World next week as we continue to bring you the latest news and interviews from the exciting world of digital identity. To see the hottest stories of the week in biometrics, visit our sibling site FindBiometrics.