Emirates Identity Authority said that “in the near future” people will be able to make cashless purchases using only their ID cards. The authority said the cards will eventually be linked to a resident’s smartphone, so they can make epayments by typing in a password or code on their handset.
The system will also be used for identification for many transactions – essentially turning the user’s phone into an ID card. The authority did not say if it would be able to monitor people’s purchases through e-payments using their ID card.
The e-payment announcement was made by Dr Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, director general of Emirates Identity Authority, at the 15th edition of the Cards and Payments Middle East conference, which began at the Dubai World Trade Centre this week.
He said that the new payment system would greatly help reduce fraud and give users a sense of security – pointing out the huge losses from existing credit card and debit card systems. Al Khouri said the losses to customers and financial institutions due to credit and debit card frauds across the world in 2012 had reached $11.27 billion, with an additional $580 million loss to retailers.
He said the use of ID cards in e-payment would strengthen the level of security and provide a high degree of data confidentiality, impenetrability and capacity to counter fraud.
“This digital transformation will enable the UAE to achieve a quantum leap in its competitive edge as it helps save millions of dollars in the public and private sectors,” he added. Al Khouri also talked of linking Emirates ID cards with smartphones.
He said: “This will be done by linking the smart phones and ID cards with each other by downloading data into the phone chip so the user can complete his transactions and related fee payments using his phone.”
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