CBA floats iPhone biometrics

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:44

Business IT - Networking

The Commonwealth Bank has floated the idea of consumer biometrics - using the camera in an iPhone to authenticate the identity of an individual.

Unveiling the Kaching iPhone mobile banking and payments app in Sydney today, the bank stressed that the four key technologies underpinning the application at present were the combination of smartphone, Near Field Communications, Global Positioning Systems and the bank's real time core banking platform.

However in the future other mobile functions could be integrated. 'Imagine a time when you can authenticate someone by taking a photo of their face,' said David Lindberg, executive general manager credit card payments and retail strategy.

Part of the security architecture of the new Kaching application is that all the core data is resident on CBA's computer platforms and not stored on the smartphone itself. To access the system people will need to register for Kaching and use a pin to access the service using a specific device.

A biometrics application could allow a consumer to take a photo - say of the person they were buying a used car from - and have the bank authenticate the identity of that person before funds were transferred.

Unveiling Kaching Mr Lindberg said that; 'Within two years the way we bank, pay and interact at the point of sale'¦will be profoundly different.' He said that by integrating mobile payments, authentication, and location data it would be possible to provide a closed loop all the way from advertising a product or service to payment.

People who sign up for Kaching will also have the option of buying an NFC enabled case for the phone allowing them to make payments of up to $100 at the 42,000 PayPass accepting devices now installed in Australia. There are now more than 7 million PayPass cards in Australia which are NFC enabled, with transactions rates growing at over 200 per cent per annum.