NEC Corporation Supplies Taiwanese Bank with Biometric ATMs

Taiwan’s E. Sun Commercial Bank is partnering with NEC Corporation to make ATM transactions more secure. The new ATMs are equipped with NEC’s NeoFace facial recognition technology, and can create a unique customer profile for anyone using the machine.

So how does it work? When someone first inserts a cash card, the ATM will take a photo of the user and send a one-time password to their smartphone. Entering the password will confirm the identity of the card owner and register their image, enabling biometric authentication for all future transactions on ATMs that are part of E. Sun’s network.   

“We will make use of this achievement to realize a safe and secure society,” said NEC General Manager Takashi Yoshida. “NEC will continue proposing innovative new solutions using biometric technologies, both in Taiwan and around the world.”

Facial recognition is being offered as an added layer of security rather than a replacement for existing methods, so the new ATMs will still require a traditional PIN. However, the two-factor authentication should drastically increase consumer confidence, especially since NEC’s technology is sophisticated enough to distinguish the real person from a photo or someone wearing a mask.  

The new ATMs are already available at five locations in Taiwan. Meanwhile, FacePhi recently helped launched a set of biometric ATMs in Spain, and there are reports that a similar system could soon be on its way to Japan, suggesting that biometric ATMs could become a big new trend in financial services.

–

February 26, 2019 – by Eric Weiss