You don’t have an ATM card? Checking account using facial recognition, Banking News & Top Stories

OCBC Bank customers can enter their NRIC number and face a camera to check their account balances at the bank’s ATMs, if they choose, starting today.

The new facial biometrics feature removes the need to carry an ATM card, which can be skimmed or stolen, the bank said.

At this time, ATMs will only be able to conduct account balance surveys using face verification.

An ATM at OCBC Tampines Center 2 will offer service starting today, and another at Taman Jurong Mall starting next Monday.

Six more will be operating by the end of next week at Pickering Street, OCBC Tampines Center One, HDB Hub, 103 Yishun Ring Road, a Geylang Road 7-Eleven outlet, and the bank’s learning and development center. , OCBC Campus.

The use of biometric authentication by financial institutions is not new and has been deployed for online financial services and telephone banking, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said.

A spokesperson said: “MAS does not prescribe any specific technology to be used for authentication and financial institutions are encouraged to innovate to meet their clients’ needs for security and convenience while ensuring that MAS’s requirements strict security controls, data privacy and responsible use of data are met. “

The facial verification feature will be gradually extended to cash withdrawals at the 550 OCBC ATMs here from June, and to transactions such as cash deposits, fund transfers, CashCard top-ups and card bill payments. credit from next year.

OCBC leverages Singapore’s national digital identity infrastructure and Singpass facial verification technology to securely verify customers.

Customers can select a service they want before entering their NRIC number on the ATM screen. They will then be asked to position their face in a frame on the screen, while a web camera scans their face and verifies it in real time against the national biometric database to which OCBC’s ATM network is digitally. bound.

The functionality is built into security properties to prevent fraud, including vividness detection technology that blocks the use of photographs, videos, or masks.

Mr. Sunny Quek, Head of Consumer Financial Services at OCBC, said: “With many customers already adopting QR cash withdrawals without having to use an ATM card, facial verification will add a layer of convenience to more. customers when they access our banking contact points. “

DBS Singapore Country Manager Shee Tse Koon said her clients have enjoyed the convenience of facial verification technology since last July.

“DBS will continue to explore ways to expand the use of facial verification and emerging technologies in our digital services and self-service machines,” he added.

Over 25,000 DBS customers have used Singpass facial verification technology to date, most doing so to securely retrieve their digibank user credentials.

Mr. Feixiang He, senior threat intelligence analyst at cybersecurity firm Group-IB, said biometric features are generally harder to abuse. “The combination of NRIC and facial recognition provides two-factor authentication which further improves security,” he added.

Regarding concerns that determined criminals could force a victim to withdraw money from an ATM, Mr. Jeffrey Kok of information security company CyberArk said that risk can be mitigated by strict law enforcement and oversight.

The OCBC said it has measures in place to protect customers and ATM transactions, including closed circuit television (CCTV) footage, remote viewing of CCTV and video analysis.

Civil engineer Rion Tng, 35, said, “I’ll be careful at first as I’ve read reports that there are ways to trick Apple’s Face ID facial recognition technology.”

But nurse Suliha Bivi, 53, said: “With the facial recognition feature, it will be more difficult for crooks to break into an account.”