Ann: Proof of concept achieved for security biometric technology, page-12

St George to allow fingerprint access to bank accounts with new iPhone
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The St George Bank fingerprint login process.
LUKE MALPASS
St George Bank will allow customers to log on to their online banking using just a fingerprint, when Apple’s next iPhone is launched in September.
The new innovation, which will be available when Apple releases the iPhone 6 in September which is widely expected to include a fingerprint scanner as part of its security options.
St George, which has long been touted as the more forward-looking division of Westpac Banking Group claimed it could be the first bank in the world to introduce this sort of technology for customer applications.
Chief executive George Frazis describing it as the latest step in a customer focussed service from St George. He said that whereas services used to be designed with how they would work in a branch in mind, now mobile phone user experience was the first consideration.
“Back in 1995 we were the first bank to introduce online banking into Australia ... So this whole push is to make sure we are staying ahead of the game,” Mr Frazis said.
“Everything now is starting to go mobile so with that digital revolution we’ve actually adopted a mobility only philosophy, which says whatever service we design, we going to design in mobile first. In the past you looked at how it was going to work in the branch, and how it could be adapted for mobile. This is totally reversed.”
The mobile app will give different options to sign up. As a security measure customers will not be able to sign up to fingerprint login if another fingerprint apart form their own has been used on the phone.
And more general concerns about how secure the new technology might be is met with confidence by St George.
The bank is confident in the level of security, saying that it was safer than anything else in existence today.
“We have seen a 350 per cent increase in the number of customers doing their banking on mobile devices since we launched our app in 2009, that’s why the launch of Touch ID for mobile banking is such an important advancement for mobile banking and for the industry more broadly,” chief information officer Dhiren Kulkami said.
Even concerns that criminals could cut off a person’s finger or thumb and use it to access bank accounts, has been considered, as the phone cannot be used without blood flow in the finger.
He said customer credentials would not be stored on the phone, and that they would continue to be stored by the bank, behind its firewall.
Following its iPhone launch, the fingerprint logon for mobile banking capability will also be extended to the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S5 in the coming months with St.George currently developing the technology for the platform.