Currency exchange machines featuring facial recognition technology have been installed in a variety of airports and travel hubs across Europe in a bid to clamp down on money laundering.
Swiss manufacturer ECEX Group utilised facial recognition software developed by UK company Innovative Technology to install the biometric scanning software on its Automatic Currency Exchange (ACE) machines.
The software is within a compact device, ICU Pro, which provides immediate facial recognition and implements user tracking that shows a customer’s previous exchanges to ensure they stay within their transactional limits.
If the exchange limit is below the threshold, the customer’s facial information is saved locally for one day so the technology can detect whether they make further exchanges during the time period and ensure the threshold isn’t exceeded.
The ACE machines are already operating in Geneva Airport, Denmark's Billund Airport and Ukraine's Boryspil International Airport, as well as the Hilton and Opera Hotel in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Andrew O’Brien, biometrics product manager at Innovative Technology, says: “Currency exchange is a complicated process that requires responsibility and regulatory compliance from any services involved. Our biometric technology has the ability to link customers’ transactions, and this approach also has exciting opportunities in Gaming, where we can help limit and protect customers from excessive gambling.”