Citibank launches smart ATMs with biometric capabilities in Asia

Citibank has just announced the launch of “Citibank Express,” an ATM with biometric capabilities for customer identity authentication.

According to the company the new Citibank Express system will allow customers to do almost all of their banking without visiting a branch, including opening accounts and applying for loans, cards and cashier’s checks and even video conference with the bank. Customers can also start a transaction on a computer or a mobile device and compete it on an express machine.

The firs Citibank Express machines were unveiled today in Citibank branches in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The company plans to add in-branch and out-of-branch locations across Asia and globally later this year.

“Since Citi’s founding in 1812, we have applied our passion for innovation to connect clients to the world,” said Jonathan Larsen, Citi’s Global Head of Retail Banking and Head of Consumer Banking, Asia Pacific. “Citibank Express is our most recent example of this innovative spirit and a big step towards our goal to be the world’s digital bank. We believe it can significantly impact the way people bank across the globe.”

It is currently unclear what biometric modality Citibanks new machines will be using to authenticate customers and the company was not immediately available to answer these questions.

This is not the first time Citibank has introduced smart ATMs with biometric capacities. According to a report in ZDNet, Citibank launched a fingerprint authentication payment service in November 2006 alongside technology provider Pay By Touch, though the program was soon stopped, citing funding issues.

As reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, India’s finance ministry has planned the deployment of biometric ATMs in rural and semi-rural areas where the penetration of services is low.

A recent Biometric Research Note suggests that biometric technologies in the banking sector have the potential to cut a financial institution’s operational risks by at least 20 percent over the next 10 years.

Article Topics

access control  |  Asia  |  ATMs  |  banking  |  biometrics  |  financial services  |  fraud prevention  |  mobile