Biometric ATMs in Use in Europe

BPS SA says it is Europe's first bank to deploy an automated teller machine with biometric security.

The Warsaw financial company said last week that it has installed one ATM in that city and plans to add three or four at other sites there. By yearend it expects to have installed 200 such machines in Poland.

The ATMs let customers authenticate themselves with their index fingers instead of traditional debit cards and PINs.

Hitachi Corp. of Tokyo developed the biometric technology for the machines made by Wincor Nixdorf AG of Paderborn, Germany.

The ATMs scan the blood vessels in users' fingertips and compare the patterns to details stored in a database.

ATMs that use biometrics to identify cardholders are common in Japan and some South American countries, but this is the technology's inauguration in Europe, said Retail Banking Research, a London strategic marketing firm. Some banks in rural India also are rolling out biometric ATMs.

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