Barclays introduces biometric finger vein reader for customers

Barclays announced it has partnered with Hitachi Europe to launch its customer authentication solution, Barclays Biometric Reader, which is backed by Hitachi’s Finger Vein Authentication Technology (VeinID).

The launch comes on the heels of Barclay’s roll out of voice biometric capabilities for its telephone banking customers.

By scanning the finger, customers can gain fast access to their online bank accounts and authorize payments without having to enter PIN, passwords or authentication codes.

Barclays said it will begin offering the technology in 2015 to its Barclays Corporate Banking customers.

The device is able to accurately read and verify a person’s unique vein patterns in the finger, which will ultimately help protect UK businesses against identity fraud. Barclays said it will not store records of their customers’ vein patterns, either privately or publically.

A few banks are already using Hitachi’s VeinID for password replacement, single sign on and ATM machines in Japan, North America and Europe. The Barclays Biometric Reader, which couples vein biometric and highly secure digital signature technology, offers a first for the global financial sector, with the potential to expand the technology more widely in UK branch networks.

“We have shown the technology to a range of businesses and the interest and enthusiasm for the product is tremendous,” said Ashok Vaswani, CEO Barclays personal and corporate banking. “The technology has also been tested by Hitachi for many years and it will be game-changing for UK businesses and consumers.

Ultimately, I hope this will pave the way for other institutions to adopt equally robust technology in the fight against online crime.”

“We are proud to be partnering with Barclays to pioneer a new era of security in UK banking,” said Koichi Nakai, president of services creation division, information & telecommunications systems company at Hitachi. “The use of our proven VeinID offers a safe and reliable biometric solution. In a world where cybercrime is on the rise, VeinID offers one of the industry’s most advanced authentication technologies ensuring businesses and their customers can stay one step ahead of fraudsters.”

Here is a video of how the new solution works.

Article Topics

authentication  |  banking  |  Barclay's  |  biometrics  |  finger vein scanning  |  Hitachi  |  vein recognition