South Korea’s major commercial lender KB Kookmin Bank announced Monday that it made palm authentication service available at all of its automated teller machines (ATMs) across the nation as part of efforts to ramp up digital transformation.

The bank introduced the biometric recognition system in April to 50 branches to allow customers to identify themselves by just scanning their palm veins instead of showing an ID card or entering a passcode. Over the pilot service period of the past six months, about 50,000 customers used the service at 284 outlets for 32,000 cases of deposit payments and 19,000 cases of money withdrawal at automated teller machines (ATMs), according to the bank.

The lender said it decided to broaden the service area to foreign currency deposit, fund and trust services thanks to the positive reviews from the customers. It has also made it available for customers to issue various types of certificates through palm vein scan that was restricted to only a handful of services including money withdrawal, transfer and contract cancellation.

The biometric verification service has been adopted after the Financial Services Commission (FSC) revised the law that required banks to check customers’ bankbooks or legal seals when paying deposits. The financial authority removed the requirement to increase the use of biometric authentication services that are both highly convenient and reliable.

The service will especially come in handy for elderly citizens who are not familiar with online or mobile banking, as they can do all of their banking work even when they don’t have an ID card or forget a passcode. KB Kookmin Bank said the palm vein authentication service would significantly improve work efficiency and customers’ convenience.

By Kim Tae-sung and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]