Two UK banks add Face ID authentication option to mobile banking apps

Nationwide and Bank of Scotland have updated their mobile apps to support Face ID, the facial authentication feature integrated in Apple’s new iPhone X, according to a report by MacRumors.

The banks are the first mobile banking apps in the UK to provide support for Apple’s new facial recognition technology.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently wrote in a note to investors that he believes that Apple will continue using the 3D face recognition technology instead of Touch ID fingerprint authentication on all future iPhones and iPads.

The two banking apps already provide Touch ID support to authenticate customers when they log into their accounts via fingerprint.

By adding support for Face ID, the UK banks are offering an alternative option which shows that the financial sector has instilled full trust in Apple’s new security technology.

Despite this, tests have demonstrated that Face ID can be duped by identical twins. Apple itself has admitted that the authentication feature may not be able to distinguish between identical twins, and in such cases, recommends customers to use a passcode to safeguard private information instead.

Apple says there is a one in a million chance that a random person in the population could look at your iPhone X and unlock it with their face, compared to one in 50,000 for Touch ID.

In September, Goode Intelligence published an analyst report that explores the impact of Apple Face ID on the market, as well as forecasts that revenues for mobile & wearable biometric authentication will surpass $14.75 billion by 2022.

Article Topics

authentication  |  banking  |  biometrics  |  Face ID  |  mobile app  |  UK