Money20/20: The Future ATM Features Biometrics, Leaner Look
Sleek, small, clean and thumbprint-operated—a new Diebold Nixdorf ATM shown off at this week’s Money20/20 show in Las Vegas points toward the future of cash distribution, and speaks to the spreading potential of biometrics in payments.
The company—formed via Diebold’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Wincor Nixdorf—developed the machine to appeal to the tablet-influenced sensibilities of the newer generation, and to enable bars, restaurants and other businesses to save space. That’s because the device, which is mostly white and resembles the post-modern, spacey school of design associated with computers on some of the newer Star Trek shows—think Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, not James T. Kirk—looks more like a lean kiosk than its stouter ATM ancestors. The interface features balloon-like options that swirl across the screen. To get there, a consumer presses his thumb against a button on the machine for authentication, says Richard Harris, vice president, new technology and design, for Diebold Nixdorf. A further layer of authentication, and security, can come from the machine “talking to” the consumer’s thumbprint-enabled phone to confirm the user’s identity, he said. And employees charged with refilling the ATM with money also use thumbprints to authenticate their identities.
The debut of the device comes amid increasing deployment of biometrics to authenticate payments. For instance, earlier this fall, Mastercard began rolling out its pay-by-selfie service in a dozen European countries. The move follows a similar pilot in North America. That followed the network’s March launch of selfie and fingerprint biometric corporate credit cards in the U.S. and Canada with BMO Financial Group. The fall 2016 issue of Pay Magazine features an in-depth look at the pros and cons of various biometric payment systems.
Diebold at the show also was drumming up interest in its new self-checkout concept that enables users to make purchases by scanning items via mobile devices. Harris said the company is talking to several large U.S. grocery stores about deploying that device.
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