Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Bank biometrics take on the panic button

Friday, July 11, 2008

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.

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HSBC announced that it will begin the conversion to contactless technology this month, replacing all customer banking debit cards, according to ThinkMoney.com.

The bank will start to roll out the new contactless cards to existing customers whose debit cards are due to expire this month and then continue the process as cards expire. Customers who don’t want a contactless card can opt out by contacting their bank before their current card expires.

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Sensor supplier Fingerprint Cards AB (FPC) has extended its partnership with Chinese biometrics provider Miaxis Biometrics Co. LTD to deliver biometrics products to the Chinese banking sector.

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The introduction of biometric multimodal fusion has helped lead to greater accuracy in biometric authentication, but its adoption rate is still overall fairly low, reports ZDNet Asia.

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Al Bilad Bank, a Shariah-based financial organization in Saudi Arabia, has deployed Gemalto’s Dexxis Instant Issuance solution for EMV payment cards in more than 120 bank branches. With this system, Al Bilad can issue up to 2,000 EMV DDA high-end security smart cards a day.

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MasterCard has announced PayPass Wallet Services, a new global offering for banks, merchants and partners that will enable customers to make purchases in stores or online using a smart phone or tablet.

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U.S. Bank and Oakland Community College, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., have launched a combined campus ID and prepaid MasterCard program for the school’s 78,000 students and 788 staff members.

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