Recession spurs banking tech

At a time when financial institutions all over the world are rethinking their business strategies in the aftermath of the global crisis, the one thing that has not taken a backseat is technology upgrading, states Economic Times.

On the contrary, the crisis has pushed banks to go ahead with technology to improve risk management, bring about cost efficiency, and also create new markets by reaching out to the unbanked.

This was evident at The Economic Times Banking Technology Conclave, where top-ranking officials from banking, IT and consultancy sectors assembled to discuss the evolving scenario and the way ahead for the industry.

The use of mobile technology has been heralded as a potential revolution in the retail banking sector, enabling bank customers to manage their financial affairs regardless of their location, writes Telecoms.com.

However, a decade after the arrival of the first mobile banking services, actual usage remains modest in many countries, and the industry is littered with the debris of discontinued projects, terminally fractured partnerships and shredded deployment plans, while failed niche technology vendors and service providers lie permanently marooned by the curbside.

From a purely operational and technological standpoint, mobile banking is a credible channel; a range of services are commercially available and improvements in device functionality and data network transmission speeds have without doubt enhanced the overall user experience. Alas, credibility does not equal substantial customer adoption.

Stewart Hefferman, the CEO of UK biometrics company OmniPerception, said last week that the banking industry has yet to realise the full potential of facial biometrics, according to SourceWire.

He urged the banking and biometric industries to work together to provide tailor-made solutions that will protect vital data and improve security for customers. Last year HSBC made history by becoming the first bank in the world to adopt facial recognition technology to enhance security at its data centres.

Since then it has installed facial biometric access control units into a number of its data centres through the UK to protect sensitive information that might otherwise be vulnerable to loss or misuse. The move comes at a time when identity theft is now the fastest growing crime in the UK, affecting more than 100 000 people at a cost of £1.7 million (R20.3 million) according to Home Office figures.