BBVA extends mobile biometric enrollment to all potential customers

Aug 12, 2018, 9:00 am EDT | Chris Burt

Categories Biometrics News | Financial Services

Spanish bank BBVA has added the capability to enroll self-employed people as new business customers through a remote digital process using the biometric technology developed by its Veridas subsidiary. With the update, BBVA says any individual can now sign up through the digital channel in a matter of minutes.

The bank opened up the process to include joint accounts in February, and now enrolls 27 percent of its new customers through the process, which involves scanning ID documents and submitting a video selfie for biometric matching. The digital app is the bank’s fastest growing channel for customer engagement, with 3.6 million mobile customers using the app for more than 50 million sessions each month.

BBVA is also finding the digital channel improves customer loyalty, as churn is 24 percent lower among digitally active customers. BBVA’s app was recently recognized as the best-in-class in Europe for the second year in a row by Forrester Research, according to the announcement.

Business accounts for self-employed BBVA customers are offered free of fees, and can provide automatic transfers for taxes, social security, and employee salaries. Ordinary euro transfers in the digital channel and services like check clearing are also offered commission-free.

“By making immediate enrollment available to the self-employed, we have improved our service-offering for an important segment of Spain’s business landscape. A segment that often does not have time to go to an office to manage their financial matters. It is also the best way to open the door to the rest of the services offered in BBVA’s app.” asserts Leyre Baltza, Head of Customer Acquisition for BBVA Spain.

Veridas was created through a partnership between BBVA and Spanish startup Das-Nano last year, and it has continued to work on applying biometric technology to other areas of bank business, such as payments.