HID and Jumio target South East Asia as two banks launch biometric services

HID Global has introduced its iClass SE RB25F fingerprint solution in the Philippines, according to a Philippines News Agency report, allowing businesses to use biometric authentication without storing customers’ employees’ personal data.

The iClass SE RB25F fingerprint reader and controller stores fingerprint templates on cards which are kept by the individual end-user. The card itself can also be used as an authentication factor.
HID Global Regional Product Marketing Manager Nelson Fung said at a press briefing that biometric technology must be reliable and secure, according to the report.

“Facial recognition (for instance) is easy to use but has low accuracy. Fingerprint (on the other hand) has high accuracy, and is easy to use and reliable,” says Fung.

The device will be marketed to hospitals and for field use due to its tolerance of different environmental conditions, and works with wet, dry, and dirty fingers, as well as through latex gloves, due to its multispectral technology, according to the company.

Bank launches biometric registration in Papua New Guinea

Bank South Pacific (BSP) has launched its biometric registration program to capture customer fingerprints to protect them against financial crimes and identity theft, the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier reports.

The four-finger scans (two on each hand) will enroll customers, and can then be used to request new or replacement bank cards, apply for a loan, or conduct other bank transactions. In addition to increasing security for customers, BSP Retail General Manager Paul Thornton says the measures will help the bank meet its KYC requirements.

The BSP project is being supplied by Fulcrum Biometrics.

Thai challenger bank launches multi-modal onboarding

Mobile-only bank TMRW by UOB has launched fingerprint and facial biometrics for fast and secure account opening, and says it is the first in Thailand to offer both modalities. The technology is available at all 350 TMRW authentication kiosks across Greater Bangkok.

“At TMRW, we are committed to making banking simpler, more engaging and transparent for Thailand’s digital generation,” says UOB Head of Retail Digital Natee Srirussamee. “We welcome our customers’ feedback as it gives us the opportunity to improve TMRW in ways that matter most to them. For example, a small percentage of customers using fingerprint biometrics to authenticate their account at TMRW kiosks found the experience not seamless enough so we enhanced this with the latest facial recognition technology to ensure a smoother account opening process for all.”

The challenger bank has also updated its user interface, and reduced the number of steps needed for some common banking transactions.

Jumio guide for bank and fintechs highlighted

In its reporting on the regional growth of biometrics for banks and fintechs in the region, Fintechnews Singapore notes a regional guide to setting up biometric-based identity verification for robust KYC and AML checks published by Jumio in June.

The report ‘eKYC in APAC: How to Get it Right’ sets out the dangers of a do-it-yourself approach, how optical character recognition (OCR) and facial recognition can work together to impact verification accuracy more than they can separately, and how automated technologies can help meet KYC requirements cost-effectively.

The company refers to the 78 percent growth in attacks and 105 percent increase in mobile new account creation transactions year-over-year in the ThreatMetrix H2 2018 Cybercrime Report, suggesting that facial recognition is a natural answer to this challenge, given the proliferation of facial recognition capabilities on smartphones.

Fintechnews Singapore also notes that Thailand announced new regulations facilitating eKYC in June.

Article Topics

banking  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Fulcrum Biometrics  |  HID  |  Jumio  |  KYC  |  Southeast Asia