Identity technologies and biometric solution provider IDEMIA has partnered with Airtel Payments Bank and HMD Global to expand the reach of offline CBDC payments in India. Following this announcement, the firms will focus on working together in order to launch an offline payment system in the next couple of months.

The new product is set to facilitate the use of the digital INR on featured phones and devices, with the objective of driving financial inclusion. IDEMIA will provide its technology and services in order to provide an offline layer to ensure that the transactions of customers are instant and secure without the need for any kind of online validation. It is set to work with the digital INR and with other solutions offered by the organisations, such as decentralised and centralised, token or account-based, independent software vendors or developed in-house by a central bank or financial institution.

More information on the partnership Throughout this partnership, IDEMIA is set to pair its CBDC technology with Airtel Payments Bank’s services, as well as Nokia's feature phones in order to improve the overall financial inclusion in the region. After the new tool is made available commercially in the area, clients and users will be given the possibility to make payments while using a secure and cost-effective feature on their devices. This launch aims to extend the accessibility of offline payment functionalities and capabilities to an overall wider population.

The companies will focus on designing the product in order to meet the needs, preferences, and demands of their customers, while also contributing to the country’s transition towards a digitally inclusive economy as well. IDEMIA’S recent strategy of development In March 2023, the company became a technology partner of a Duch Consortium that deployed a Digital Travel Credential (DTC) Pilot. The European DTC Pilot was made between Canada and the Netherlands and it was deployed by a Duch Consortium that consisted at the time of the multiple organisations.

As per the information published in the press release at the time, IDEMIA was set to be the technology provider for the European Union (EU) DTC-1 Pilot. This represented a programme that was launched by the European Commission (EC) in order to test the DTC on KML flights between the two areas for a period of three months. Earlier in the same month, IDEMIA announced the launch of two contactless biometric terminals that aimed to expedite the traveler identity verification procedures.

The announcement detailed that the new products were developed in order to further the contactless biometric standard and to highlight what biometric technologies can offer to the everyday lives of customers. For more information about IDEMIA, please check out their detailed profile in our dedicated, industry-specific Company Database. .