A Major Bank Has Already Embraced Face ID for Mobile Login

Apple’s iPhone X has only just hit store shelves, and a new banking app that takes advantage of its new Face ID authentication system has already arrived. Singapore’s OCBC Bank has announced OCBC OneLook, a new authentication system compatible with its OCBC Mobile Banking, OCBC OneWealth, OCBC Business Mobile Banking and OCBC Pay Anyone mobile apps.

The language of OCBC’s statement announcing the feature reflects the broader buzz over Apple’s infrared facial recognition: “Move over, fingerprints,” the statement reads, “Your face is your new banking password.” OCBC goes on to explain that customers who have an iPhone X will be able to log into their banking apps just by looking at their phones, thanks to the sophisticated biometric authentication offered by Face ID.

The move comes relatively soon after OCBC enabled biometric authentication on its mobile banking app in the spring of last year via Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint recognition system. OCBC was not among the first to embrace Touch ID, but with biometric authentication a novel idea for many consumers, support for Touch ID generally arrived in a trickle over the last couple of years, as financial institutions and other organizations tentatively tested the waters of this technology. Now, thanks in large part to Apple’s pioneering efforts, mobile fingerprint scanners are widespread.

And with the mass market now more or less familiar with the concept of biometric authentication, it will be interesting to see how quickly other banks and the rest of the business sector embrace Face ID for user login. Apple’s flagship new iPhone appears to be a hit, and reviewers have generally attested to the reliability of the device’s facial recognition system, which Apple has claimed to be much more secure than Touch ID. With consumer awareness of digital security on the rise, and iPhone X devices finding their way into more users’ hands, there may now be a compelling incentive for a range of organizations to embrace Face ID security in the same spirit that OCBC has.