Brazilian banks discuss Samsung Pass rollouts
Samsung is in talks with Brazilian banks about possible trials of its iris scanning technology.
Senior head of mobile products at Samsung Brazil, Renato Citrini, told newspaper Valor that the company is negotiating the implementation of Samsung Pass's secure authentication system into banks' online banking services and digital wallets where they already exist.
The Pass technology enables access to financial apps by scanning users' irises and it is considered by many experts to be a more secure and accurate method of protecting the personal data on smartphones than other biometrics authentication methods such as fingerprint scanners.
The Samsung Brazil executive did not disclose which banks are already looking into the technology. However, one of the main local banks known to focus on emerging payment technologies is Bradesco: the banking giant was the first to adopt fingerprint-based identification in the country and has been looking into technologies such as blockchain.
At its Unpacked event last week, Samsung announced that the new Galaxy Note 7 would be its first mobile device to be equipped with iris recognition as a way to unlock the device and that the Pass feature will work with the new iris scanner. The phablet will be available to Brazilian consumers in early September.