The Nationwide Building Society has announced plans to implement
biometric signature verification technology to combat fraud and
reduce paper-based processes. The society expects to get a return
on investment in five years.
Gerry Coppell, a controller in Nationwide's technology department,
said the company will roll out the system across its network of 681
UK branches by early 2003 for customers opening 'Flex' current
accounts.
The eventual aim is to use the system for about 70 processes that
require a signature, although it will not be used for cash
withdrawals for a couple of years, he said.
Biometric security techniques, such as fingerprint recognition or
iris scanning, offer banks and other businesses greater protection
against computer crime and fraud.
But some critics have claimed the public will not accept such
technologies. Nationwide's implementation will be watched closely
by other financial institutions. The system, developed over the
past two years, is based on technology from UK firms Florentis and
Motion Touch, and sits on a Microsoft .net platform.
An electronic pad on the counter records a profile of a customer's
signature, which is then embedded in an electronic document and
used to verify future transactions.
The system takes account of variables such as pressure, speed and
acceleration of writing, which it records 200 times a second, and
the physical characteristics of the signature and the time taken to
complete it. It is more secure than the current method of keeping
signature cards at the branch, Coppell said.
The embedded signatures do not present a security risk, out of
context, he said.
"The only way this could be [used to prepetrate a fraud] is with
the connivance of the person whose signature it is," he said.
In the late 1990s Nationwide conducted the first pilot tests of
iris recognition at cash machines and counters, but ditched it when
it proved too expensive.