HSBC Becomes Latest Bank to Embrace Face ID Login

HSBC has become the latest financial services organization to let iPhone X users login to their corporate accounts using Face ID, the device’s sophisticated 3D facial recognition system.

The bank’s support for Face ID comes after Discover enabled Face ID login for its cardholders in December, and Singapore’s OCBC enabled Face ID authentication a month before that. For HSBC, the support could affect a substantial chunk of its corporate clients, with the bank asserting that about a fifth of HSBCnet Mobile users are on an iPhone X.

In announcing the support, the bank emphasized Face ID’s security, repeating Apple’s talking points that the system establishes a 3D map of a user’s face using a 30,000-point grid, and that it’s accurate to one in a million users. HSBC Global Head of Liquidity and Cash Management Diane S. Reyes suggested that the system is therefore particularly apt for the bank’s corporate app, asserting, “With single amounts of up to $1 billion authorised on the app, we know our customers will appreciate the additional security and ease Face ID allows.”

HSBC has proven to be an enthusiastic adopter of biometric authentication technology in recent years, having been one of the first major banks to use voice recognition for its call center, and also having teamed up last year with FacePhi to enable selfie-based authentication on its mobile app. HSBC is also, of course, one of the many banks to have embraced Face ID’s predecessor, the pioneering Touch ID fingerprint scanning system.

Sources: BankingTech, Verdict

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May 10, 2018 – by Alex Perala