Banking customers will soon be able to access bank accounts and authenticate payments using biometric scanning technology that reads the unique vein patterns inside their fingers.
Finger vein scanning is more effective than fingerprint recognition as the veins are far harder to replicate or imitate than prints. For the veins to be visible, they must be scanned from real finger attached to a live human body, ruling out the possibility of artificial replicas and more gruesome forms of identity theft.
The “VeinID” technology, developed by Hitachi, is already in use in place of passwords or ATM pin numbers in some parts of Japan, North America and Europe. Now, Hitachi has partnered with Barclays to create a first-of-its-kind Biometric Reader for the global financial sector. UK corporates, who have been particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks, will be able to introduce the technology to help combat identity fraud from 2015 and, according to Barclays, there are plans to install the readers in banking branches more widely.
“This solution is at the leading edge of innovation and is in direct response to client concerns about the threat of online fraud,” said Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays Personal and Corporate Banking. “Ultimately, I hope this will pave the way for other institutions to adopt equally robust technology in the fight against online crime.”
Koichi Nakai, President of Hitachi’s Services Creation Division, added: “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.”
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