UK multinational banking firm Standard Chartered has announced that it will roll out fingerprint and voice biometric technologies across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The move is aimed at enabling its customers to securely access their bank account balances, cards and investments using their unique fingerprint or voice as identifiers.
The biometric authentication solutions will be available to its customers in 15 markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East soon.
The roll out offers mobile banking services on smartphones and iPads with the touch of a finger.
The bank has already the introduced the touch login in Singapore, the UAE and India.
It plans the service in China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, Pakistan and the African markets of Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe by the end of 2016.
Standard Chartered also plans to offer voice biometric technology for phone banking services for clients in India and the UAE by end of this year.
Standard Chartered retail banking CEO 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.”
Last year, the bank announced that it would invest $1.5bn in technology over three years.
The bank said that the global roll-out of biometric technology is part of its commitment to deliver the latest in digital banking innovation to its clients.
In July, the Bank announced the launch of videobanking in nine markets by end of 2016. The markets include Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Kenya and the UAE.
Standard Chartered reported a profit for the first half of this year, helped by restructuring measures and fewer bad loans.
Its pre-tax profit stood at $994m for the January-June period compared to a loss of $990m in the second half of 2015.
Image:Standard Chartered Bank Building in Hong Kong. Photo: courtesy of Baycrest / Wikimedia Commons.