UK’s Atom Bank ready to offer biometric login
30 December, 2015
category: Biometrics, Digital ID, Financial
Atom Bank – touted as the UK’s first bank designed for digital, offering easy and convenient banking via an app – will deploy biometrics to ease the log-in process in the New Year. The move comes amid broader adoption of biometrics as both a means of identification and security.
“A key reason for Atom using biometrics is that it makes the log-in experience simple and easy. We want to offer customers a personalized experience, and what could be more personal than using your face or voice as a way of recognizing you and getting you quickly and securely into our banking app,” says Edward Twiddy, the bank’s chief innovation officer. “We know from our research that bank customers get frustrated with having to use multiple ways of identifying themselves when logging in online and using apps, particularly having to use security token devices to generate a one-time passcode. “
Now that so many mobile devices support biometric technology, Twiddy says consumers are already familiar with it and accepting of it.
“When an Atom customer first registers for our app, they’ll be prompted to register their security credentials,” Twiddy says. “They’ll take a selfie for facial biometrics, record their voice for their voice biometrics and be asked to input a passcode. These form their log-in credentials, and they can choose their preferred way of logging in. It’s a very straightforward and quick process.”
Atom is working to add the fingerprint biometric as an option. It will also register the user’s devices, and additional security checks may be required with unusual or large transactions. The bank is using software company Daon’s mobile biometric authentication platform IdentityX, which is also used by American financial services company USAA.
