Authentication: Bankinter Opting for Iris Biometry
- Bankinter has just launched a mobile application enabling users of its stock services to access their account through biometric authentication. The application is designed for iPhone owners (or 55% of its customers) and has been developed by Mobbeel Solutions. It relies on an iris recognition module.
- The user places his eye in front of the phone’s camera; his iris is scanned and compared to the one previously registered by the bank. The bank also plans to provide this app on Android Smartphones. It should also be declined on other customer relation channels: ATMs as well as e- and m-banking applications.
- These devices are fairly popular in Asia but not so much in the rest of the world. Iris recognition is considered one of the most reliable technologies (with over 240 comparison points, it is almost impossible to forge) but it is also one of the most expensive. Bankinter appears as a pioneer in Europe where biometry is still considered intrusive, unhygienic and, above all, disrespectful of the user’s private life (the CNIL is still opposed to central storage of biometric data: this information can only be stored on the authentication medium). This launch may augur an evolution in terms of uses. Here, this technology not only seems very secure, but also very simple and adapted to mobile devises, unlike authentication systems relying on complex codes.
See September and December 2010 as well as April 2011 Watches