Razorpay rolls out biometric authentication to boost payment success rates

Company partners Mastercard, with Visa integration underway, to replace OTPs with biometrics, aiming to improve security and boost transaction success rates

Payments technology company Razorpay has introduced biometric authorisation for card transactions in partnership with card networks such as Mastercard, with Visa integration in the pipeline.

 

Cardholders can authenticate online card transactions using biometrics such as fingerprint or facial recognition, providing an alternative to the existing system of one-time passwords (OTPs).

 

“With biometric authentication powered by passkeys and built in partnership with Mastercard and Visa, we are eliminating one of the biggest friction points in digital payments. This solution not only strengthens security and ensures full RBI compliance but also unlocks higher success rates and better customer experiences for businesses,” said Khilan Haria, chief product officer, Razorpay.

 

 

Biometrics, as an alternative to OTPs, eliminate challenges such as delayed messages, incorrect entries, and redirection errors, thereby improving transaction success rates.

 

Razorpay said nearly 35 per cent of payment failures come from authentication challenges. The success rate improves to 95 per cent, the company said.

 

The rollout of biometric authentication across networks is expected to be gradual, with customers having an option to opt in for passkeys or continue with OTPs for a while, Business Standard reported in February.

 

The rollout follows the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) guidelines issued last year that require at least one of the two factors of authentication to be dynamically generated or proven, paving the way for biometric verification.

 

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps, too, are introducing biometric authentication to execute transactions on the real-time payment system.

 

Apps such as PhonePe, Cred, and BHIM have rolled out biometric authentication for users.