Loans offered to be issued on the basis of biometrics submitted through a smartphone

Banks offered to use the biometrics of Russians, registered by them on their own through their smartphone, to open an account remotely. Such an initiative is contained in a letter from the National Council of the Financial Market (NSFR), which was sent to the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Digital Development and the government (Izvestia has the document). Now, citizens who have submitted face and voice casts in the EBS in the traditional way, by visiting a bank branch, can open an account remotely using biometrics. Credit institutions believe that the restriction on the use of part of the casts of the face and voice to identify the client will infringe on the rights of citizens to receive remote financial services.

This method of opening an account does not increase the risks, since banks have the opportunity to conduct additional checks on the client, the letter emphasizes. At the same time, credit institutions were asked to mark in the EBS those casts of faces and voices that were registered by clients themselves.

“There is no consensus among banks on the security of using biometrics, self-registered by customers, for remote account opening and financial services. Therefore, they are asking for the right to use such data for remote admission to services, however, each credit institution could choose whether to use this opportunity on its own,” Andrey Yemelin, head of the NSFR, explained to Izvestia.

The ability to independently register face and voice casts in the EBS through your own smartphone was legally fixed on December 30, 2021. However, biometrics that a person registered himself can be used for a limited range of transactions.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

“Without leaving the room: they want to issue loans based on biometrics from a smartphone”