Smart cards and biometrics can be effectively combined for personal authentication over an open network. The combination is achieved as two-step authentication in which the smart card is authenticated based on a public key infrastructure, and the card holder is authenticated using the template stored in the smart card based on the biometric data. The biometric verification has to be executed in the card for security purposes. This paper describes a fingerprint verification method based on a popular biometric verification technique that can be embedded in a smart card. The prototype system that uses this verification method can verify fingerprints in a few seconds by using the data stored on the smart card.