Technology

Cielo teams up with Payface to accept payments through facial recognition

According to Cielo, about 18% of the 6.2 billion transactions processed by the company in 2020, used non-contact technologies

Ricardo Fritsche and Eládio Isoppo, founders of Payface (Photo: Payface/Courtesy)
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  • To use this technology, the consumer must make a prior registration of his face and his credit card in the Payface app;
  • The announcement comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly increased demand for contactless payment methods.

Brazil’s Cielo will start using facial recognition in face-to-face purchases made with credit cards, as the largest electronic payment company expands channels for contactless transactions, which have grown rapidly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The solution, in partnership with the startup Payface, begins in a pilot phase at a Drogaria Iguatemi drugstore unit, in a mall in the capital of São Paulo, on Thursday, and then extended to other chain stores in São Paulo and Curitiba.

“Then, we plan to extend the use to other large drugstore chains,” said Cielo’s chief executive, Paulo Caffarelli, on Wednesday. “Who knows, in the future, for supermarkets.”

To use this technology, the consumer must make a prior registration of his face and his credit card in the Payface app. The solution eliminates the need for extra devices since they can be activated only with the use of a smartphone.

READ ALSO: Mercado Libre receives Brazilian Central Bank license to act as financial institution in the country

According to the partner companies, the technology cannot be defrauded with users’ photos, which can be recognized even if they are wearing a protective mask.

The announcement comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly increased demand for contactless payment methods.

According to Cielo, about 18% of the 6.2 billion transactions processed by the company in 2020, used non-contact technologies, such as QR Code and NFC.

(Translated by LABS)

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