Visa cardholders in Singapore can now make payment transactions by scanning their palms. Tencent Palm technology has been used to enable Visa cardholders to make payments without having to remove a physical card.
To make a Pay by Palm payment, only the palm needs to be scanned on a special machine. Currently the feature is offered to Visa cardholders of DBS, OCBC, and UOB bank customers. Because Pay by Palm is still in the pilot test stage, transactions can only be done at the Alchemist coffee shop chain with plans to expand it in the future.
Before Pay by Palm can be used, users need to register their palm first on the machine. After this is done, all payments can be made with just a palm scan without the need for a physical card or smartphone.
This is the first time Tencent Palm's palm scanning technology has been used outside of China. It is similar to Amazon One technology which was initially developed for their own supermarkets only before also being offered for office entrances.