There's been a lot of discussion about the expected increase in CNP fraud once EMV technology is implemented across the United States. That's because other regions experienced a dramatic fraud migration to the CNP channel after switching over to EMV.
But I've been thinking that these other places adopted EMV at an earlier stage of biometric adoption. Biometrics could make all the difference. The iPhone and iPad, for example, now use fingerprints for ID with Apple Pay. And Apple has just introduced the Touch Bar on its latest MacBook Pro. Won't this go a long way toward reducing CNP fraud?
Susan Bronset, Merchant Level Salesperson
Susan,
In "Postcards from payments 2026," by Dale Laszig, The Green Sheet, Oct. 10, 2016, issue 16:10:01, Jim Parkinson, Chief Information Officer of North American Bancard Holdings LLC, envisioned a future in which biometrics plays a significant role. "Paper checks, cash and credit cards have become antiquated forms of payment (they are in museums), and consumers now pay via biometrics and DNA readers (no more passwords or PINs)," he stated. "Fraud has not been eliminated, but it has been significantly reduced."
Also, in "Get ready for biometric payments," The Green Sheet, Oct. 24, 2016, issue 16:10:02, we pointed to research indicating that adoption of devices that use biometrics is on the rise, which is likely to lead to increased use of biometrics in payments.
It is reasonable to expect advances in technology, such as Apple's Inc.'s inclusion of the Touch Bar, which enables use of Apple Pay on a laptop with use of fingerprint identification, could lead to reduced migration of fraud to the card-not-present (CNP) channel. However, at this point, there is no way to know. We'll continue to report on this as industry experts study data as it emerges on the U.S. EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) migration and its effects on CNP fraud.
What do you, your colleagues and merchant customers have to say about adoption of biometrics in payments? Are merchants clamoring for it? If not, what is uppermost in their minds? Let us know at greensheet@greensheet.com. 
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