Mastercard has partnered with Ingenico (a provider of payment acceptance and services), Fujitsu Frontech, Fulcrum Biometrics (a provider of biometrics identification technology), and Scanntech (a provider of intelligence platform) to launch an in-store palm-recognition-based payment authentication at Red Expres in Uruguay.

Red Expres shoppers can register their information, payment credentials, and biometrics on-site and pay for their goods by placing their hand over a sensor at the payment terminal. Users can essentially register their palm biometrics and link them to any payment card for authentication.

Analyst QuickTake: Mastercard has expanded its biometric payment offerings in recent times. Notably, last November, the company partnered with NEC to implement facial recognition-based payment authentication by leveraging its face recognition tech and Mastercard's payment systems. This partnership followed Mastercard launching a pilot program in May 2022 for retailers to offer facial recognition and fingerprint scanning-based payments. At the time, Mastercard noted that it was working with several tech providers, including NEC, PopID, Payface, Aurus, PaybyFace, and Fujitsu, to develop these technologies.