News and insight into biometric identification and authentication technologies

Bank biometrics take on the panic button

Friday, July 11, 2008 in News

With the fast rising concerns over customer account security in banking, Siemens and AXSionics, a Swiss technology firm, have developed a new fingerprint scanner that links up with your bank account, according to an Economist article.

While fingerprint scanning as a means of access to one’s account is not new, this device carries a few other new features to help discourage thieves. Among the new features is the requirement that the finger used have blood pumping through it, to assuage any worries over a thief cutting off ones finger and using it to access an account.


Another feature is the designation of a panic finger. On the device a user may require any number of fingerprint readings be required prior to account access, however, they may also designate one of their fingers be used to simulate a transaction while secretly alerting the bank to the emergency.

As costs are still high with this new technology, analysts still believe that voice biometrics will find wide-spread use in banking before fingerprint readers do, however, they see this as a good solution for the more well-off bank customers with more to spend and more to protect.

Read the full story here [end]