Sumitomo Mitsui

Think biometrics in banking are still a thing of the future? Maybe so at YOUR bank, but the future is here - or at least in Japan - where Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) has launched a biometric program for their online customers. The smartphone app can use fingerprints, voice or facial recognition for the login. We continue to have our doubts about this technology and security (what happens if your fingerprints are stolen by nefarious hackers half a planet away?), though smarter minds than ours no doubt have solved these problems with state of the art encryption. Still, I'll keep my password, thank you very much. Now what was it again????

(Cindy Taylor/Publisher)

"Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. now allows account holders to access an app so they can use their fingerprints, voice or face, instead of passwords, to log in online with their smartphones.

The bank introduced the biometric authentication features July 26. Officials explained that this obviates anxiety about forgetting passwords and lowers the risk of unauthorized access.

Account holders must first register their biometric information on the app developed by Polarify Inc., an information technology company under the SMBC group. This allows them to record their speech patterns or have a mugshot snapped, for example, and link the information with the SMBC app so that those features can serve as substitutes for passwords when account holders make balance..."

Full Story at Asahi.com