LANDBANK is allowing Filipinos registered in the national digital identity system to open an account without presenting a physical identity document, using facial verification against records held by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The service connects the bank’s onboarding process to the National ID Authentication Services platform. A live facial image is compared with the biometric information associated with the customer’s PhilSys registration, returning an identity result for the account-opening workflow.
Customers can use the process in the LANDBANK Mobile Banking App or receive assistance at any of the bank’s 616 branches. The option is intended for applicants who are registered in PhilSys but do not have their physical National ID card or another accepted document immediately available.
The state-owned bank is positioning the change as part of its financial-inclusion work, particularly for people in underserved or unbanked communities. Removing the physical-card requirement can allow a registered person to rely on the identity record already held by the government.
LANDBANK and the Philippine Statistics Authority began piloting National ID authentication services in 2024. The pilot covered identity checks for account opening, withdrawals and check encashment, using biometric or demographic information to validate a person against the national registry.
Other Philippine banks are beginning to use the same infrastructure. BPI recently added PhilSys selfie matching to mobile account opening, allowing applicants to verify their identity in its app without manually entering all information from a physical document.
The government has also expanded National ID services under the PhilSys program, including digital credentials and authentication channels intended to make the registry usable across public and private services.
The LANDBANK rollout applies to people whose biometrics are already associated with a National ID record. The bank continues to support conventional document-based onboarding for applicants who cannot complete the PhilSys facial-verification flow.
The authentication service returns a verification result to LANDBANK without turning the bank’s app into a separate national-ID enrollment channel. Initial demographic and biometric registration remains the responsibility of the Philippine Statistics Authority, while LANDBANK uses the resulting record for customer due diligence under its account-opening and customer-identification rules for financial services and compliance.
Sources: Daily Guardian, Philippine Statistics Authority
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
