Face Scan Checkout Is Actually Working: PopID and J.P. Morgan Payments Are Scaling Biometric Payments at Scale

The fintech payment world just got a major upgrade. J.P. Morgan Payments and PopID are teaming up to roll out facial recognition checkout across U.S. retailers and quick-serve restaurants, and the early results suggest this isn’t just hype—it’s genuinely speeding things up.

What’s Actually Happening

PopID’s facial biometric technology is now processing payments at Whataburger locations with J.P. Morgan Payments handling the backend processing. Customers enroll their face in the Whataburger app, and when they’re ready to pay, a quick facial scan replaces the need to fumble with phones or cards. No QR codes, no app unlocking, no wallet hunting. Just face recognition and done.

The tech is merchant-agnostic too. Once you’re enrolled with PopID, you can use the same facial biometric across any participating restaurant or retailer in the pilot network—already live at 380+ locations. It’s the kind of seamless experience that actually justifies the term “friction-free.”

The Numbers Tell the Real Story

Here’s where it gets interesting: PopID’s data shows checkout times drop by up to 90 seconds per transaction. In retail and QSR environments where every second counts during lunch rush, that’s substantial. Add in a 4 percent increase in average ticket size—customers seem more willing to make impulse purchases when checkout doesn’t feel like a chore.

The FORMULA 1 CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX became the first large-scale pilot for J.P. Morgan Payments’ biometric solution in May 2024, processing 100 percent of transactions successfully in under a second with full authentication. That’s the kind of real-world validation that matters.

Why Banks Are Getting Into Facial Payments

J.P. Morgan Payments positioned this expansion as the sweet spot between fintech agility and institutional stability. The bank processes nearly $10 trillion in daily payments across 160+ countries and 120+ currencies. Combining that payment infrastructure with PopID’s facial recognition tech creates something harder to replicate: enterprise-grade security backed by one of the world’s largest financial institutions plus the technical precision of a specialized fintech.

“We offer something hard to match—the stability, scale and trust of a world-class bank combined with the technology and agility of a fintech,” said Jean-Marc Thienpont, Managing Director of Omnichannel & Biometric Solutions at J.P. Morgan Payments.

The Logistics: How It Actually Works

During enrollment, PopID converts a photo of your face into an encrypted template stored securely in the cloud. When you initiate a purchase, the system matches your live scan against that stored template in real-time. The merchant gets confirmation instantly and processes payment. It’s opt-in and opt-out at any time—consent-driven from the ground up.

Why Retailers Actually Care

Whataburger, which already uses PopID for biometric loyalty check-ins, expanded the rollout specifically because checkout times improved visibly and loyalty engagement increased both at counters and self-ordering kiosks. Faster throughput during peak hours isn’t a minor thing for quick-serve operations.

“We believe in innovation,” said Jerry Phillips, VP of Technology at Whataburger. “This marks a significant step forward in enhancing our overall dining experience. Guests no longer need to pull out their phones or authenticate separately—biometrics handle it all.”

What’s Next

This isn’t a pilot phase anymore. PopID’s solutions are now operational at 380+ QSR and retail locations. J.P. Morgan Payments in 2023 reported $18.3 billion in payments revenue, a 31 percent increase from $14 billion in 2022. With that kind of firepower behind facial recognition deployments, expect rapid scaling across merchant categories.

The consensus from merchants: when biometric tech actually reduces friction instead of adding it, adoption follows. PopID and J.P. Morgan Payments just proved the economics work.