South Korea has approved using fingerprints and iris scans for bank teller transactions, allowing consumers to withdraw money or close accounts in a more convenient manner even without their ID card or bank book.

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Thursday the revised bank transaction law that adds such biometrics as an effective identification method has now come into effect.

The amendment comes after the Korea Federation of Banks filed a request in June 2019 to include biometrics as a new form of banking authentication.

Under the new law, bank users can now verify their identity using biometric data – like fingerprints, iris or palm vein patterns – when withdrawing money or closing accounts in front of human tellers.

Banks that have taken full security efforts behind their biometric authentication systems would not be held liable for damages caused by forgery or identify theft unless they result from gross negligence of the fraud.

Biometric identification is currently available in many Korean ATMs.

The FTC also revised rules regarding dormant accounts. Accounts with no cash that have been inactive for five years or more would be officially declared dormant and shut down. This is to address the growing number of unused accounts in recent years, which has added to bank management costs and led to money transfer errors.

By Baek Sang-kyung and Kim Hyo-jin

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