In an effort to find a faster, easier and more secure way to authenticate members in branches, Gesa Credit Union installed some new technology in its three busiest ones late last year.
Instead of swiping their bank-issued cards and entering pin numbers or showing tellers identification and waiting for their account information to pull up, members of the $1.7 billion CU can now hold their hands over biometric palm vein-authentication machines and then almost instantly start their banking business.
During the beta-test period at Gesa, which ran through October, the palm authentication reader reduced the time it takes to authenticate a member in the branch from 15 seconds down to just one, a whopping 93% decrease.
"Given all the fraud that's going on, the security of the palm [authentication system] is a huge deal to our members," said Karl Guynn, Gesa's director of products. "Cards can be stolen. But you can't fake this system out. It has to be a person's hand and it has to have blood running through the veins, so you can't steal that."
(An added bonus is that germophobic members don't have to worry about washing their hands afterwards because their palm hovers over the readers but never actually touches them.)
Guynn and other CU executives were intrigued last year when Fiserv asked Gesa to become a beta test site for its Verifast Palm Authentication solution, which integrates secure biometric information into the technology provider's DNA account-processing platform. The palm reader uses near-infrared light to capture a user's palm vein pattern and then matches it against a database of pre-registered members for authentication.
The member initiates the palm scan using a wireless tablet at the teller station which communicates with the DNA core platform. Once the match is confirmed, the DNA platform automatically displays the member's profile screen to front-line staff, allowing them to server members more quickly.
In surveys conducted by Gesa, almost all (99.9%) of members who tried the palm vein solution rated it a five (the highest score) on a scale of one to five on both the registration process and use. And almost all (97%) of the beta test users said they would use the palm scanning technology again.
Members "love the fact that they don't need to bring an ID and they love how fast it is," said Guynn. "To boil it down, the palm vein technology speeds up the transaction, it's more secure, and our members and our tellers love it."
The Richland, Wash.-based CU said that it plans to have seven branches outfitted with the palm readers by the end of the year.
