British banking group Standard Chartered has announced plans to launch fingerprint and voice biometric technologies across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The biometric technologies will allow clients to access their bank account balances, cards and investments using their unique fingerprint or voice as secure identifiers.
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The launch will serve more than five million clients, and is the “most extensive rollout of fingerprint biometric technology by any international bank and a first in most markets,” the bank said in a statement.
The bank’s clients in 15 markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East will be able to carry out mobile banking services on smartphones and iPads using fingerprint recognition technology.
The touch login service will now be introduced launch in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Pakistan, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe by this year end of 2016, subject to relevant regulatory approval. The service has already been rolled out in Singapore, the UAE and India.
The bank will also roll out voice biometric technology for clients in India and the UAE using phone banking services by the end of 2016. Plans are on to launch this technology in additional markets as well by 2017, subject to regulatory approvals.
Standard Chartered CEO of retail banking Karen Fawcett said: “Fingerprint and voice biometric technologies give our clients more convenience and security when they want to access their bank balances, cards and investments, wherever they are and whenever they want.
“We’re bringing the latest digital technologies to all our markets so that we can offer easy, convenient and secure banking to our clients.”
The latest move follows the bank’s announcement last month of launching videobanking in Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Kenya and the UAE by the end of 2016.
Earlier in 2016, the bank introduced its digital bank on an iPad sales-and-service tool known as Retail Workbench in Singapore, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, the UAE, Kenya and Nigeria. The bank also launched a new mobile and online banking platform to eight African markets.
