Increasingly, biometrics are entering the financial markets as a fraud prevention measure. Not just replacing passwords in online payments, biometric authentication factors are working their way into banks on the branch level. To this effect, UK bank Barclays has announced this week that it will be rolling out finger vein biometrics to cut down on fraud.
According to an announcement on the Barclay’s website, a new biometric reader, developed in partnership with Hitachi Europe, will first be made available to its corporate clients in 2015. The reader is small, features the company logo and connects to devices through USB.
Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays Corporate and Personal Banking, comments: “This solution is at the leading edge of innovation and is in direct response to client concerns about the threat of online fraud while making our clients’ lives easier through its convenience.”
Prior to the introduction of finger vein authentication, Barclays successfully implemented a voice biometrics solution for Barclays Wealth and Investment Management clients. The voice system authenticates callers using the company’s phone services, eliminating the need for passwords and security questions.
Finger vein biometrics, in the case of enabling strong authentication for fraud prevention, are ideal. Because vein images are sub-dermal, they are incredibly difficult to spoof.
Hitachi Europe’s finger vein recognition technology is also aiding the healthcare sector. In July, the company announced that in support of the Social Security Institution of Turkey’s continued adoption of biometrics it is rolling out mobile WiFi scanners featuring finger vein recognition. By using these scanners at point of service, the Turkish government can better manage reimbursements in accordance with the Universal Health Insurance scheme, under which employees pay compulsory healthcare fund contributions.
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September 5, 2014 – by Peter B. Counter
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