Verifone Brings Facial And Palm-Vein Biometric Payments To Australia

Verifone is bringing payment terminals with built-in facial recognition and palm-vein biometric capabilities to the Australian market, allowing enrolled consumers to verify their identity at the checkout by presenting their face or palm instead of tapping a card or phone.

The Verifone Victa suite of devices, which the company describes as Australia’s first payment terminals with built-in biometric functions, will be available to merchants through Verifone’s banking and acquiring partners in the coming months. Australia is one of the first markets in the Asia-Pacific region to receive the technology, following a launch in New Zealand last month.

Biometric payment is opt-in. Consumers must enrol through a participating provider – such as a merchant, digital wallet or bank – and provide consent as part of that process. At checkout, an enrolled consumer actively selects the biometric option and presents their face or palm for verification. Card, phone and PIN payments remain available at the terminal.

How the system works

The biometric capability on the Victa platform works by capturing a facial or palm-vein image at the terminal and verifying it against a biometric profile that was created when the consumer enrolled. The enrolled biometric profile is managed by the service provider through which the consumer signed up, not by the merchant.

At the point of sale, the merchant offers the biometric option alongside existing payment methods. If the consumer chooses biometrics, the system processes the capture and verifies their identity from the enrolled profile.

Beyond payment verification, the biometric function can also link loyalty and payment experiences, allowing enrolled consumers to check in to loyalty programs and complete payment in a single interaction without needing a physical loyalty card.

Head of Strategic Partners at Verifone, Kristy Gregory, framed the technology as an extension of biometric interactions consumers already use.

“Australians are used to tapping a card or a phone to pay for the things they want and need,” Gregory remarked. “People already use biometrics to unlock phones, access apps and confirm payments online. We’re giving customers that same choice at the point of sale.”

The privacy context

The launch arrives against a backdrop of heightened regulatory attention to biometric data in Australia. Biometric information is classified as sensitive information under the Australian Privacy Act 1988, affording it a higher degree of protection than ordinary personal information.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has identified biometric information as a priority area for proactive regulatory efforts, and has signalled it will focus on complaints involving biometric data, analyse systemic trends and inform compliance and enforcement approaches in the sector.

The most significant recent case involved hardware retailer, Bunnings, which deployed facial recognition technology across 62 stores in Victoria and New South Wales between 2018 and 2021. The OAIC found Bunnings had not collected customers’ biometric information in accordance with Australian Privacy Principles, including failing to conduct a privacy impact assessment before implementing the technology.

The Administrative Review Tribunal’s 2026 decision on the Bunnings case partially overturned the OAIC’s determination, but made clear that facial recognition technology can only be implemented legally under the Privacy Act if it is used for an appropriate purpose and accompanied by adequate compliance measures, including rigorous privacy systems, proper training and impact assessments.

Verifone’s opt-in model – where consumers must actively enrol through a provider and then select the biometric option at the terminal – is designed to address the consent requirements that featured in the Bunnings determination. The enrolled biometric profile is managed by the service provider rather than the merchant, which separates the biometric data from the retail relationship.

Consumer sentiment around biometric payments remains mixed. Research cited by JPMorgan, which has been piloting facial and palm-vein payments in the United States, projected that biometric technology would account for roughly US$5.8 trillion in transactions and three billion users globally by 2026. However, US research from CivicScience found that 73 per cent of consumers reported being uncomfortable with biometric payment technology, suggesting adoption may be slower than the hardware availability implies.

The Victa platform

The biometric function is one capability on the broader Victa platform, which Verifone positions as an open system that can run third-party applications and services beyond payment processing.

Head of Product for Asia Pacific at Verifone, Ben Hughes, described the platform as a business tool rather than a single-purpose payment device.

“Victa runs on Verifone’s secure operating system, so third-party developers can build value-added services directly onto the platform,” Hughes explained. “We’re already seeing this in New Zealand, across loyalty applications, alternative payment methods, donations and on-device apps.”

The Victa family spans several form factors designed for different retail environments. The Victa Mini is an ultra-portable device for pop-up retail and space-constrained settings. The Victa Mobile and Victa Portable are designed for in-aisle and high-traffic use. The Victa Register is a merchant-facing point-of-sale system with a large touchscreen and modular accessories, while the Victa Lane is a customer-facing device for checkout lanes. The Victa Unattended is built for self-service environments such as kiosks, vending, transit and parking, and the Victa Mobile Ruggedised is designed for demanding environments.

The devices are certified to PCI PTS 7.x and support point-to-point encryption and tokenisation. They are constructed with 60 per cent recycled plastics, feature field-replaceable batteries rated at a minimum of 12 hours, support digital receipts and include accessibility features such as haptic feedback and audio cues for screen navigation.

The competitive landscape

Biometric payment is an emerging but still niche category globally. In the United States, JPMorgan has been piloting facial and palm-vein payments with its merchant clients, while Fiserv has partnered with biometric company, Wink, to bring face and palm payments to its Clover checkout terminals, with quick-service restaurants, sports venues and retailers receiving priority enablement.

Amazon has pursued palm-based payments through its Amazon One technology but has faced resistance from both consumers concerned about privacy and merchants reluctant to share shopping data with a company whose retail arm competes directly with their businesses.

Verifone’s approach differs from the Amazon model in that the biometric enrolment and profile management sit with the consumer’s chosen service provider – a bank, digital wallet or merchant – rather than with a retail competitor. This may reduce merchant resistance, though consumer willingness to enrol remains the key variable.

In Australia, the rollout will depend on which banking and acquiring partners make the Victa devices available and how quickly merchants adopt the biometric-capable terminals. The technology is available for merchants to offer, but whether consumers choose to enrol will determine how quickly biometric payment moves from a theoretical capability to a practical checkout option.

Last Updated on August 13, 2026 by Nick Ross