OCBC to enable face verification for ATM banking transactions

OCBC will roll out facial recognition technology on eight ATMs in Singapore starting Friday. This move makes the bank the first in South-east Asia and takes it a step closer to eliminating a physical ATM card.

This service will be first available to use to check account balances, and will progressively extend to other ATM transactions including cash deposits, funds transfers to other banks, cashcard top-ups and credit card bill payments from next year. The bank also looks to extend face verification to all 550 ATMs in Singapore progressively.

OCBC is the first to tap Singapore's National Digital Identity Infrastructure, SingPass Face Verification, to securely verify customers for banking transactions at ATMs without the need for ATM cards, it said in a statement. The technology is embedded with security features that deter fraud, including liveness-detection technology that detects and blocks the use of photographs, videos or masks during the verification process. (see amendment note)

To use facial recognition, customers can select the ATM service they want to use before entering their NRIC number. Following that, a Web-enabled camera will scan their face and verify their image against the national biometric database with the identities and images of four million Singapore residents. The database linked with the bank's ATM network will operate in real-time as the scanning occurs.

Said Sunny Quek, head of consumer financial services Singapore at OCBC: "Singapore consumers are keen digital adopters - even the elderly. While cash is still a key mode of payment in Singapore, the digital overlay to get cash is very welcomed by consumers.

"With many customers already embracing QR cash withdrawals without having to use an ATM card, face verification will add a layer of convenience to more customers as they access our banking touchpoints," Mr Quek added.

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This service will be available at the following locations: OCBC Tampines Centre One and Two, Taman Jurong Shopping Centre, Great Eastern (Pickering Street), HDB Hub Level 1, 103 Yishun Ring Road, OCBC Campus and Geylang Road 7-Eleven.

DBS told BT its customers have been using SingPass Face Verification feature to apply for their digital bank accounts since July 2020.

"This has proven to be popular as our retail customers can apply for digibank access in less than three minutes while corporate customers can access their new corporate accounts online in about 20 minutes from the point of application," said Shee Tse Koon, DBS Singapore country head.

To date, more than 25,000 customers have used the SingPass Face Verification, with most of them using the feature to securely retrieve their digibank user credentials, the bank said.

Amendment note: An earlier version of this article stated that OCBC is the first to tap Singapore's National Digital Identity Infrastructure, SingPass Face Verification. It is in fact the first to do so to verify banking transactions at ATMs.