In updating its core cards app for iOS late Tuesday, American Express has given a thumbs up to TouchID security for business cards.
American Express is arguably the leading commercial card payments company in the world. Amex has more than 107 million cards in circulation. While Amex doesn’t definitively break out commercial vs. consumer cards — small business cards tend to skirt the line — the majority of its business is centered on commercial payments, by our estimate.
And that is what makes Tuesday’s quiet upgrade of the Amex app interesting. By adding TouchID capabilities, Amex appears to be the most noteworthy commercial payments venture in the world to embrace the security feature, which centers on tokenization. Indeed, Amex said last month that tokenization would be made available at the beginning of 2015.
Commercial bankers, you are now free to add TouchID features to your apps, too.