Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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SINGAPORE: Hitachi Ltd’s unit Hitachi eBworx Bhd is in talks with a major bank in Malaysia, believed to be Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), to bring in its finger-vein authentication technology (VeinID) to strengthen the bank’s security system.

“The bank heard about how Barclays Bank PLC did it with our technology. So they are very interested [in using the technology too],” Hitachi regional senior vice president and general manager for ICT solutions business Mitsuhisa Kajiyoshi told reporters at the Hitachi Innovation Forum 2014 (HIF 2014) here yesterday.

Kajiyoshi declined to reveal the bank’s name, except to say that it is “a yellow-coloured bank”.

Maybank, the country’s largest bank, has over 400 domestic branches.

In September, Barclays launched in the United Kingdom the Barclays Biometric Reader that was developed with Hitachi’s VeinID. With the new technology, Barclays customers will be able to access their online bank accounts and authorise payments with just a scan of their finger next year, hence avoiding the hassle of inputting passwords or authentication codes.

Hitachi said the system is more secure than the more common fingerprint authentication technology which can be easily duplicated. VeinID, on the other hand, works by reading and verifying a user’s vein.

“Unlike fingerprints, vein patterns are extremely difficult to spoof and replicate,” said a Hitachi VeinID expert when met at the HIF 2014. 

The technology has been widely used in Japan by banks for the past 15 years for password replacement, single sign-ons, and at ATM machines. It has also been introduced in the United States and Europe though the Barclays Biometric Reader, which combines VeinID with the digital signature technology, is reportedly a first for the global financial sector.

Since acquiring Hitachi eBworx, formerly eBworx Bhd, in 2012, Hitachi has been looking to expand its information communication technology (ICT) solutions for the financial sector, not just by leveraging on eBworx’s existing customers in Malaysia, but also by reaching out to neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and China.

In April, Hitachi eBworx, which provides digital solutions including for credit management and trade finance, said it was targeting to sign up five tier-1 banks in Indochina as customers by year-end. 

“Going forward, the US, China and [the rest of] Asia, in particular Asean countries, are very important markets to us,” said Hitachi president and chief operations officer Toshiaki Higashihara.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 20, 2014.

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