“Selfie-based onboarding and authentication has proven to be increasingly popular in the financial services industry over the past couple of years, and this interest has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Banco Santander Chile is crediting biometric authentication technology for much of the success of its Superdigital banking app.
The bank – the largest in Chile in terms of deposits and loans – says it has onboarded more than 100,000 clients since the app’s launch five months ago. And while the bank credits its month-over-month growth to a number of factors, in a statement it highlighted its “simple and fast” onboarding process and its “universal biometric authentication”.
The app is essentially a fully digital bank account paired with a prepaid card, and supporting money transfers and digital purchases. Customers can sign up entirely through online channels thanks to the app’s use of biometric onboarding, with end users’ selfies matched against their official identity documents using facial recognition.
This approach appears to be of growing interest to Santander Group. While Superdigital’s selfie authentication system has been provided by TOC Biometrics, other divisions of Santander have also worked with FacePhi, a firm renowned for its selfie authentication technology.
Santander isn’t alone. Selfie-based onboarding and authentication has proven to be increasingly popular in the financial services industry over the past couple of years, and this interest has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Banks and other financial services providers are seeing a lot of customer activity moving into digital and mobile channels, and with the threat of fraud on the rise as well, they’re turning to biometric solutions to secure these channels.
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