A Bangladesh micro-banking initiative is issuing biometric smart cards from Gemalto to the country's unbanked, enabling them to authenticate transactions through their fingerprints.
In a bid to foster financial inclusion, Dipon Consultancy Services Limited (DCSL) has begun deploying its Dipon Group-ePay service points at major public places throughout Bangladesh.
People can open an account at the kiosks, signing up for a Gemalto smart card with an embedded software application that securely stores the holder's facial image and fingerprint data.
Using biometric authentication, customers can then use their account for deposits, withdrawals, money transfers, loan repayments and remittances. Working with Prime Bank, DCSL has already delivered 200,000 cards.
Syed Javed Iqbal, director, DCSL, says: "Gemalto's solution is the perfect fit for our market, where the literacy rate is less than 60%, enabling users to authenticate themselves in a fast, intuitive and highly secure manner."
In neighbouring India, Visa and a group of banks are also using biometrics to promote financial inclusion, tapping the country's national identity system to bring banking and electronic payments to tens of millions of people.