BankIslami Pakistan Limited has officially launched Pakistan’s first cardless biometric ATM service to facilitate its customers. This service will use customer’s thumb impression for his/her identity and no pin code will be required.
This service will be especially helpful for Pakistan’s rural population for whom it is difficult to remember pin codes due to low literacy rates.
BankIslami first launched biometric enabled ATMs in Pakistan back in 2006. In December 2012 BankIslami had a soft launch of the cardless service at selected ATMs. However, now the service has been activated throughout the nation across a network of 201 branches in 77 cities.
BankIslami currently has 160 ATMs, which are biometric enabled. The bank aims to add another 40 ATMs across Pakistan by the end of this year.
The biometric ATM service is limited to Bankislami customers only; however, customers of other banks can continue using BankIslami’s regular ATM service with their ATM cards and pin numbers.
Kazi Abdul Muqtadir and Saeed Ahmed, Deputy Governors State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) inaugurated the unique service at a ceremony held at BankIslami’s Head Office. Hasan Aziz Bilgrami CEO BankIslami, Asad Alim Head Information System, George Flouros Area VP MEA NCR, Muhammad Faisal Shaikh Head Products & Business Development were also present during the launch ceremony.
To enable the usage of this service BankIslami customers will be asked to register his/her biometric identification against CNIC while opening an account. Customer’s left and right thumb will be used for registration purposes. After approval of the customer’s account opening request, his/her thumb impressions/biometric record will be linked with the account through CNIC.
During the launch of this service Mr Hasan Aziz Bilgrami, CEO of BankIslami reiterated that this biometric technology has been adopted to make banking transactions more secure. He further stated that now Bankislami customers can use ATM facility with just a single thumb impression.
On the occasion NCR Corporation’s representative George Flouros said that with the successful launch of biometric ATM, now NCR can export this technology from Pakistan.
The NCR Corporation is a US-based computer hardware, software and electronics company that provides products and services that enable businesses to connect, interact and transact with their customers.