BIO-key International (NASDAQ: BKYI) announced that the Central Bank of Jordan has selected the company to support a national biometric authentication initiative targeting Jordan's financial sector, which serves a population of 11.6 million.

According to a press release, the initiative aims to reduce end-client reliance on passwords, tokens, and other traditional credentials by shifting toward biometric-based authentication. BIO-key's PortalGuard and WEB-key technologies will be used to enable authentication across digital and financial environments.

"Our vision is to establish biometric authentication as the national standard, reducing reliance on passwords and other legacy authentication methods," said Alaa Wrekat, Head of Cybersecurity at the Central Bank of Jordan. "We selected BIO-key International as our partner based on its biometric expertise and proven experience supporting large-scale deployments across financial institutions in EMEA."

The scope, implementation framework, and timeline of the initiative are still being developed between BIO-key and the Central Bank of Jordan. No financial terms were disclosed.

BIO-key cited prior experience with large-scale biometric deployments, including involvement in a banking deployment it claims supported more than 30 million customers across over 850 branches. The company also noted a recent partnership with the Association of Banks in Jordan for a digital identity and cybersecurity workshop held in Amman.

BIO-key operates across the United States, Spain, Portugal, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, and Nigeria.