News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

New research suggests bank customers want biometric security

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Research conducted by SpeechStorm, a voice biometrics developer, and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, a provider of software solutions for telephone customer service, suggests that banking customers would prefer voice biometrics being implemented into their banks customer verification over the phone rather than just PINs, passwords or other private information.


The findings go as far as to say that over one thirds of respondents would be interested in switching banks if the competitor employed voice biometrics in their over-the phone security.

The research, conducted under the University of Ulster’s head of Voice Authentication Research, Michael McTear, illustrates the concern among bank customers for a lack of effective security to ward off identity thieves. SpeechStorm and Genesys believe these results point to a need for banks to employ voice biometrics in their customer verification systems. [end] 

Hitachi partnered with Turkey-based banking company Isbank to bring biometric identification authentication to roughly 3,400 ATMs in Europe.

While the new network of biometric ATMs, which utilize Hitachi’s finger vein scanning technology, is the largest in Europe, it is far from the largest worldwide where Japan has embraced the technology and installed more than 75,000 finger vein-based ATMs.

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The First National Bank (FNB) in South Africa has implemented a biometric identification system enabling customers of the bank to secure access to their accounts with their fingerprints, according to a Business Live article.

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In an effort to reduce fraud, the Association of Banks in Singapor announced that it has set guidelines regarding the implementation of smart chips in ATM cards in Singapore.

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German bank, Sparkasse will pilot contactless payments for its bank credit card users, reports Venture Village.

Locations in Hannover, Braunschweig and Wolfsburg will be some of the first for the trial, which begins in April. More than 1.3 million customers will receive the new bank cards complete with contactless functionality.

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) wants to see a biometric scanning device that has Web-enabled communication and control that’s built on a publicly-available specification, reports Bank Info Security. To that end, it’s looking for proposals for such a device.

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The European Association for Biometrics (EAB) is focusing on a goal of driving the research and development of biometrics and building the future of the industry around a concern for end-user privacy protection.

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