YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. MasterCard is now allowing online shoppers to use fingerprints or selfies to verify their identities, as it looks to fend off growing disruption in the payments sector from both established technology groups and fintech startups, Financial Times reports.

The Identity Check Mobile application will allow customers to complete purchases without the need to enter a password or PIN, measures the company hopes will make them more likely to complete purchases as well as improving security.

The US-based cards issuer is rolling out the service in 12 European countries from today, following trials in the Netherlands, US and Canada. Further countries are expected to follow in 2017.

Ajay Bhalla, MasterCard president of enterprise risk and security, described the development as a “significant milestone in the evolution of payments”.

Established payments groups like MasterCard face increasing competition thanks to the emergence of mobile payments, where barriers to entry are much lower than the traditional credit card business.

The global value of payments made by mobile devices or wearable technology is expected to reach $95bn annually in 2018, up from $35bn last year, according to Juniper Research, the market research group.