Costa Rica rolls out national IDs, Mobile onboarding for UK banks
29 September, 2016
category: Biometrics, Digital ID, Financial, Government
Costa Rica deploying polycarbonate national IDs
Oberthur Technologies announced that its Lasink solution has started to be deployed across Costa Rica, through a multi-year contract to provide highly secure national ID cards.
This new ID card will provide the Costa Rican authorities with a foundation to develop a trusted identity environment. The issuance of the high security ID card has been delegated through a contract between the Supreme Electoral Court, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute and Oberthur Technologies. Some 600,000 of these cards will be issued every year in Costa Rica.
Oberthur has developed the LASINK solution to help to combat forgery of identity card photos and to provide governments with the necessary means to strengthen border identity checks and protection of citizens.
LASINK enables the document holder’s color picture to be engraved directly within the polycarbonate card. The document is durable, with a life span of more than 10 years. The Lasink pattern is easily recognizable but difficult to replicate with a digital printer. Scanners or smartphones are able to authenticate the document portrait. This will reinforce trust in many types of transactions including security clearance or Know-Your-Customer processes.
Equiniti, Daon rollout mobile onboarding for UK banks
Equiniti Group PLC, a provider of technology solutions that help clients to manage the challenges of a regulated world, announced the launch of Prequel – its mobile biometric authentication and identity lifecycle solution.
One of the biggest risks for a bank is adapting to the digital needs of their customers, putting them behind the curve of growing trends in mobile and online banking. Working with Daon, Equiniti has developed a digital onboarding services in the UK. Equiniti will deploy Daon’s IdentityX Platform to facilitate multi-factor, multimodal mobile biometric authentication in its Prequel mobile solution.
The Prequel mobile app has been developed for the financial services industry and includes key identification and authentication processes from credential verification to face and voice recognition capabilities. Biometric technology lends itself to the banking industry, where risks have increased over the last few years, as a convenient and secure alternative to using traditional passwords or pins.
The “Know Your Customer” or KYC requirements imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority could mean large penalties for those who don’t adhere to these regulations. In addition, if banks do not comply with latest anti-money laundering laws they could be prosecuted.
Biometrics streamline the authentication process by removing the need for additional equipment or human interaction and negate the requirement for complex passwords or PIN numbers while also lowering operational costs. The document verification module of Prequel facilitates the scanning of officially recognized identity credentials such as a passport or driving license. Prequel also enables fast, secure and scalable facial and voice recognition on a mobile device.
EU awards contract for biometric visas
The European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (eu-LISA) has selected Accenture, Safran Identity & Security and Atos to provide application and infrastructure services for the EU Visa Information System and for the Biometric Matching System underpinning VIS.
The project aims to facilitate the quick and secure processing of visa applications by third country nationals requiring visas to enter the Schengen area. The Accenture-Safran-Atos consortium will help eu-LISA deliver new digital services to its customers and enhance the capabilities of the VIS Mail system, which is used to exchange information between member-state authorities.
The contract, awarded following a call for tenders by eu-LISA, is for four years, with option for an extension of up to two years. As consortium leader, Accenture is responsible for overall program management, including delivering enterprise and technology architecture and design support, providing application development and maintenance services, and managing IT on-site service support functions. Safran will continue to develop the biometric solution and provide all biometric-related consulting services and expertise. Atos will be responsible for provision and maintenance of infrastructure solutions.
