An American credit union is testing out a biometric ATM in Baltimore, according to a Credit Union Journal article by W.B. King. The Securityplus Federal Credit Union’s pilot project will see an ATM equipped with facial recognition technology scanning customers’ faces for the purpose of identity authentication, and is set to launch later this month.
It works by taking an initial scan of a user’s face, and then using it to authenticate them in later transactions. While facial recognition is somewhat new to the customer-facing aspect of banking, biometric technology like fingerprint scanning is increasingly prominent in the financial services sector, and Securityplus says it has been using it for employee authentication for over ten years.
Speaking on the bright future ahead of biometrics in banking, industry consultant Chris Sachse notes that the technology “is already popular to a certain extent and it is only getting better and less expensive,” adding that the practice of two-factor authentication “is great and CU’s [Credit Unions] should look to integrate that where they can, right now.” Indeed, there does appear to be a trend of financial services firms increasingly adopting biometric security.
Similar set-ups are starting to appear elsewhere too, such as in a Massachusetts motor vehicle registry, where customers can use face-scanning automated kiosks for basic transactions like licence renewal. While such projects still have an air of novelty, as consumers get used to such technology, it will likely become part of a set of security and customer service expectations. In retrospect, Securityplus’ efforts here will likely be seen as quite prescient.
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December 11, 2014 – by Alex Perala
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