Japan's third-largest bank, The Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi, will deploy a biometric security system based on
vein-pattern recognition technology in branches nationwide in
October.
The bank will start issuing Visa credit cards with embedded
integrated circuits that contain customer vein-pattern information
and work with a system developed by Fujitsu.
The cards will be used to confirm the identity of customers
when, for example, they want to use ATMs. The cards will be issued
from 12 October, and customers will be able to use them at 267 of
the bank's branches nationwide, according to a bank spokesman.
The bank did not disclose how many ATMs in each branch would be
compatible with the system.
The cards function as cash cards, credit cards, and as electronic
money. Palm vein patterns are read whenever cardholders use ATMs or
make transactions at bank counters.
The vein-pattern technology works by shining light in the
near-infrared region (the infrared region closest to visible light)
on customers' palms.
The palms are held about 4cm above a scanner, which takes a
snapshot of the palm, illuminating the vein patterns just below the
skin. This unique pattern information becomes the basis for
security applications.
The information can then be loaded into a server or, as
Tokyo-Mitsubishi has done, put into an integrated circuit embedded
in cash or credit cards. Users who register their identities need
to have their palms scanned and the data downloaded to the
cards.
To identify themselves to an ATM, card carriers place their
wrist on a cradle above a scanner, a small box bolted next to the
machine's input screen connected to the ATM by USB (Universal
Serial Bus). When using the card at ATM, the scan usually takes
about a second, according to the spokesman.
"The users' personal identification number is still required,
because we wanted to make the system as secure as possible," the
spokesman said.
This is the second major sale of the technology to a Japanese
bank. The first, in June 2004, was with Suruga Bank, which has
already installed a version of the system in 65 of its branches.
Suruga, a regional Japanese bank, uses the system for
over-the-counter transactions.
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi forecasts it will issue up to one
million of the new cards each year after launch in October.
The bank said that it was satisfied with the security and
robustness of the system after feedback from customers following a
trail that used eight demonstration ATMs installed in branches in
metropolitan Tokyo.
The bank trialed two types of biometrics technologies, one using
the vein-pattern recognition system, and the other using finger
print scanners. Of 1,000 customers polled, about 90% of respondents
said that they felt comfortable adopting the vein-pattern reading
system, according to the bank.
"In the poll, we asked customers what sort of biometric security
they would be most comfortable with, and the vein pattern
recognition technology was seen as acceptable by many customers,"
said the bank spokesman.
Fujitsu has been promoting the system as more secure than
four-digit personal identification numbers (Pins) which can be seen
by criminals who steal customer cards and use them to steal
money.
In a demonstration of the system in Tokyo in August, withdrawing
cash took about three to four seconds, about the same time as
inserting the card and punching in a Pin.
Fujitsu first demonstrated its vein-pattern reading technology
in 2002 when it showed a computer mouse prototype. Users put their
palm on the mouse to log into the PC. Fujitsu has said that it is
looking to use the system in other applications, for example car
keys, and to promote the system overseas.
Paul Kallender writes for IDG News Service