Indian Mobile Payments System Paytm May Add Face Recognition

When it comes to security on mobile payments systems, there’s never been a feature so vital. While mobile payments has come a long way on the back of convenience and a gee-whiz factor that’s hard to top, security has been the leading concern of mobile payments since the first such tools crawled from the ether. Now, Paytm—one of the biggest names in India’s mobile payments scene—is working to improve security by testing facial recognition systems.

The Paytm operation is starting out fairly simply, using facial recognition as a security measure to unlock the system when the properly-authorized user’s face appears in the smartphone’s camera view. However, this is just the beginning, as Paytm is also said to be working on facial recognition control mechanisms as well. Effectively, this will allow customers to be able to pay for goods and services with the blink of an eye.

Though such a practice might actually run afoul of regulators—the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has security guidelines that require two-factor authentication for transactions over Rs 2,000—it can actually fit in well with current standards. Not only do the lesser transactions require only one factor of authentication—meaning the eyeblink factor will do just fine for anything under Rs 2,000—but even with the larger transactions’ second requirement, the eyeblink can be part of the mix required.

With 9.5 million offline merchants on the Paytm platform, Paytm has plenty of reason to augment its mobile payments systems as best it’s able. It’s got a lot to do to both keep its current base and draw in new users, an especially difficult challenge given that there are an increasing number of mobile payments platforms out there. India’s demonetization efforts have made mobile payments a particularly viable option, so platforms have a particular reason to push hard for market share. Facial recognition is an exciting addition, but will it be enough to get them anywhere? Certainly, facial recognition needs development—we’ve seen it work poorly so often—but should Paytm put a comparatively untested system forward as a major competitive edge?

Only time will tell, in the end, just how well this bold move works, and if it draws in fresh interest to keep Paytm viable going forward.