An ATM (Automatic Teller Machine), today used by everyone with a bank account, serves several purposes – for withdrawing cash, balance enquiry, fund transfer and procuring a bank statement. Account-holders with the bank are given an ATM card and PIN (Personal Identification Number) each, for this purpose.

While ATMs have been making life easy, one is not unaware of several criminal cases that keep making news from time-to-time. Not to forget, ATM cards can be lost, or even worse, stolen, and pins can be forgotten. Is it quite a hassle, isn’t it? What if however, biometric technology replaces cards and pins, and one’s physical characteristics, like fingerprints, or iris scans are used instead? Commenting on the issue, Barclay’s Personal and Corporate Banking CEO said that the bank is committed to a biometric platform, which is indeed the future of banking. So much so that the bank will introduce biometrics to their 1-million-strong UK network.

CTBC bank in Taiwan has introduced ATM that uses face recognition and finger-vein recognition technologies for authenticating transactions. In India, HDFC Bank plans to introduce handheld micro ATMs, where aadhar cards would be used for fingerprint-recognition. Whichever way you look at it, biometric technology is the future of banking.