Nets, the digital payments specialist, has launched testing of finger vein payments in Denmark. Now, students and visitors at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) can leave their cash, cards and smartphones behind and buy lunch using just their finger.

Paying with your finger is a new, faster and safer way of making payments that works by scanning the structure of veins in customers’ fingers. In collaboration with CBS, Smart Payments and Fingopay, Nets has installed finger scanners at the check-outs in the business school cafeteria. Anyone with a Dankort, the Danish domestic card scheme, can enrol in the system and link the unique pattern of veins in their finger to their account.

Biometrics, the use of biological recognition for identification, is not a new phenomenon. Paying with your finger vein is similar to the biometric capabilities on smartphones that consumers are already comfortable with – and even more secure. Many models of smartphone can now be unlocked, and particular applications accessed, with a fingerprint. Finger vein payments are even more secure than fingerprint biometrics because finger vein patterns are almost impossible to replicate and blood circulation must be detected for the payment to be authenticated.

The payment process is very much like other contactless payments but the increased security creates one key difference – even high-value transactions do not require the extra step of PIN entry.

“The pilot underway at CBS demonstrates how fast payments technology is developing. In 2017 we launched Dankort on the mobile using brand new technology, and now only one year later customers can become their Dankort themselves,” says Jeppe Juul-Andersen, Vice President of the Dankort sector, Nets.

Together with Smart Payments, a specialized independent innovations business founded by Nets, Nets is investigating several different solutions that will reshape the way we pay.

“Your means of payment may not be made of plastic in the future, as apps and infrastructures which enable consumers to pay using biometric identifiers are developed. We are excited to see how card holders find the finger vein payment experience. If they react positively, we will consider launching pilot schemes in other Nordic countries as well,” adds Juul-Andersen.

Finger vein payments are as secure as purchases made with the physical Dankort. Users can unlink the finger scanning function from their Dankort at any time if they no longer wish to make use of the technology.