IMGCAP(1)]
Indian banks will adopt palm-based biometric-identification systems for ATMs over the next five years, Ramanath Chintagunta, head of information technology for the State Bank of India, reportedly predicted this week at the Security and Identity Management 2009 conference held at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. Such technology enables consumers to authenticate themselves through their palm-vein patterns. "Vein patterns are extremely difficult to forge," he said. "Detection … is unaffected by the surface of the skin, has greater accuracy, and the speed of authentication is fast," he added. Rajnish Dass, a professor who studies information and security systems at the institute, tells CardLine Global financial institutions could start deploying palm-based ATMs over the next decade. "Fingerprint technology, which is being adopted by Indian banks, has its drawbacks, as prints can be easily replicated and also erode with time," he says. "However, while palm-based ATMs are technologically viable, they may not be financially viable." Banks have made huge investments in fingerprint-based ATMs, and making a switch now to palm-based ATMs in this economy would be unlikely, Dass says. The Indian branch of Germany-based ATM vendor Wincor Nixdorf AG also was skeptical about the idea. "We cannot comment on [the] State Bank of India, but such a technology seems unlikely to be adopted soon," a company spokesperson says. Some financial institutions in Japan have deployed ATMs that can read palm veins, a technology that appeals to hygiene-conscious consumers who prefer not to touch dirty screens. Earlier this year, Sagem Sécurité, part of the France-based Safran Group, and Hitachi Europe Ltd., a subsidiary of Japan-based Hitachi Ltd., said they plan to develop technology that could enable consumers to authenticate themselves at ATMs and points of sale through fingerprint and vein recognition (CardLine Global, 25 March).
