Site Navigation

Checkout speed is critical in a world where customers have more choices and less tolerance for friction than ever before. Often, it’s the logistics of checking out by entering a PIN or rescanning a card that’s facing the wrong direction that slows down the process. At the same time, fraud risks are exploding, with McKinsey and the FTC reporting a 25% year-over-year increase in fraud. For merchants trying to balance the frictionless checkouts that consumers want with the need for greater payment security, it’s a daily challenge that requires balancing convenience with security controls.

Verifone’s biometric authentication, powered by Qualcomm Technologies architecture in payment terminals, is speeding up transactions, improving personalization, and using identity verification to keep fraud threats in check. Verifone’s approach is designed with merchants and technology partners in mind, making it possible to strike this balance without unnecessary complexity. 

Understanding biometrics in 2026

Biometrics use unique physical characteristics — such as facial features or the vein map in your hand — to verify identity before authorizing access to sensitive details like payment information. Merchants often have concerns about how biometrics will be received, but the landscape is evolving as consumers become more comfortable with the technology. According to IDEMIA, 81% of consumers are now willing to use their fingerprint instead of a PIN code. People are using biometrics to unlock their phones, access banking apps, and even navigate airport security.

As the technology is demystified, adoption increases, and today Research and Markets reports that 70% find biometrics more user-friendly and 46% perceive them as more secure than PINs and passwords. Biometrics also allows you to integrate personalized, targeted advertising and loyalty programs into your checkout experience for greater customer convenience. 

Frictionless checkouts, maximum security

For retailers, the idea of introducing biometric authentication can be promising. It helps reduce technology challenges and cut losses, without adding stress to the customer experience. Biometric authentication works by integrating a camera or sensors with a payment terminal, and using facial recognition, palm vein scanning, fingerprints, voiceprints or another unique identifier to verify a customer’s identity. Instead of waiting in line to swipe a card and then enter a PIN, customers can smile or wave to authenticate, pay, and move on with their day.

Frictionless checkout translates to a better bottom line. There are shorter waits during peak times, fewer abandoned checkouts due to frustration with long waits, and consistent throughput across lanes for greater flexibility. Biometrics also reduce fraud risk, because a stolen card and a guessed PIN are no longer enough to authenticate a purchase. With a biometric scan, an identity is fully authenticated before a purchase is complete, which reduces chargebacks, returns, customer frustration, and the work that goes with combating fraud.

The ease of Verifone’s biometric experience, combined with its decades in leading the industry with secure payment expertise, offers merchants a win-win: less friction for verified customers and greater protection against fraud. 

Chip-level protection for sensitive data

For merchants that want fast solutions, it’s important to remember that simply introducing a sophisticated system doesn’t protect you. How sensitive data such as payment information or biometric data is stored can create risks. That’s why architecture and the partner that you work with is just as important as the type of biometric verification you adopt.  

Verifone’s biometric solutions are designed to run on Qualcomm Technologies-powered architecture. These solutions take a “two-brain approach” to how they manage and process information. First, the goal keeps biometric processing fast and completely separated from payment information. Two environments are running simultaneously and working together, but they’re separated at the hardware level.  

For merchants that are considering adding biometrics, this addresses several concerns. The first is simply not knowing the complexities that this new way of verifying identity can introduce. Verifone operates as a partner that’s thought through the risks and built at the hardware level with isolation that protects sensitive operations even if the broader system has challenges. When biometric information and payment credentials are separate, that reduces risk and shrinks the surface area that you have to defend. Compliance also becomes easier, as this level of separation supports PCI and other security standards without causing delays in the customer experience.

Payment terminals powered by Qualcomm Dragonwing Platform offer high-performance, but the value isn’t just a faster checkout. Instead, you’re investing in architecture that’s designed to offer the convenience of biometrics while keeping security at the center of every interaction. 

Future-proof innovation for long-term growth

Biometrics isn’t a final destination. Instead, it’s a mindset shift about the standards that merchants use to verify identity. Over time, new biometric approaches will evolve, customer needs shift, and new fraud tactics hit the market. For merchants, it’s important to have a system that’s ready to grow with the market that doesn’t require a complete payment system overhaul.

For merchants, the smartest way to think about your POS strategy isn’t to pick a feature. It’s to pick a platform. Verifone’s devices powered by Dragonwing are flexibly designed so that merchants can adopt new biometric approaches or integrated applications without requiring a terminal replacement program or other storewide overhaul that cuts into profits. Instead, upgrades become just that and continue to build a business that keeps pace with changes. Over time, that allows merchants to embrace things like multi-modal biometrics that use more than one ID method, customer engagement apps, and even AI-driven fraud detection for more sophisticated protection.

That’s what future-proof means. A Verifone POS investment is relevant as industry factors like authentication standards and customer needs change. And you’re able to keep up, without completely overhauling your system. 

Driving retail outcomes: The leaders in secure biometrics

Investing in payment architecture is expensive, and it’s often the technology that will power your business for years. With Verifone biometric solutions, there are measurable business outcomes. Your customer checkouts move quickly, providing a variety of verification options. Fraud risk is reduced, which cuts costs and helps improve brand trust. And finally, operational efficiencies and the bottom line reflect these positive changes.

With different solutions in the market, the retail industry trusts Verifone because it’s a leader in biometrics and broader payment security. Verifone’s biometric solutions are designed with security built-in at the hardware level, ready to support facial and palm recognition, and seamlessly integrate with both Verifone and third-party POS systems. Overall, Verifone’s approach to biometrics is designed to combat fraud, add value to the customer experience, and deliver the interoperability needed to work with your technology stack.

Perhaps most critically, Verifone understands the merchant’s unique needs at all phases of the payment ecosystem. As a result, these biometric solutions are designed with security at the chip-level to keep critical data separated, while using advanced Dragonwing processors to optimize speed and accuracy. With designs that work in a variety of retail settings and environments, supported by partnerships with innovators like PopID, enabling merchants to choose biometric solutions and integrations — such as loyalty programs — that best fit their needs.

If you’re interested in learning more about biometric solutions, contact Verifone today to discuss your needs or learn more about deployment options.

Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.