Bancolombia’s Nequi first in Colombia to deploy mobile biometrics
Hello there
Nequi, a financial mobile banking service from Bancolombia, has become the first in Colombia to deploy mobile biometrics for authentication. The technology – the IdentityX platform – is supplied by US fintech specialist Daon.
Users will be asked to provide their biometrics when signing up for Nequi. They will be able to authenticate with a “selfie” (i.e. facial recognition technology) when changing devices or SIM cards, resetting passwords or reactivating an account.
“Nequi will ultimately deploy biometrics – facial recognition – for mobile login as a gateway to their mobile application and add voice recognition as an additional biometric modality,” says Daon.
Tom Grissen, chief executive officer at Daon, describes Nequi as “truly innovative” in customer experience. Nequi “removes friction from the authentication process and establishes trust by verifying the person, not a password or dongle”, he explains.
Another first
Daon has also recently teamed up with Neon, a banking start-up in Brazil. Neon will be the first bank in the country to use biometric authentication for transactions within smartphone applications. Instead of authenticating with a username and password, customers will take a selfie to use facial biometrics.
