Maybank rolls out biometric authentication for its m-banking app

• Quick Touch speeds up access to accounts by 70%
• Follows release of Quick Balance on Apple Watch

MAYBANK has introduced a biometric authentication service, dubbed 'Quick Touch', for its Maybank2u app, allowing customers to access their accounts and check their balances using fingerprints on their mobile devices for authentication.

The new service, which it claimed was the first of its kind in Malaysia, is part of its strategy to strengthen its offering in the digital space and meet the demands from customers for increasing convenience and transaction speed, Maybank said in a statement.
 
The new biometric authentication speeds up access to accounts by 70% compared with the traditional mode of keying in the conventional six-digit personal identification number (PIN), it added.
 
“It … is a convenient way for customers to check their account balance in … just two seconds,” said Hamirullah Boorhan, Maybank’s head of Community Financial Services Malaysia.
 
Hamirullah said that on average, more than 500,000 balance inquiries are performed monthly  and this would require customers to  key in their PIN each time they need to access their account.

“Given this large proportion, we felt it was critical to enhance our customer experience by offering our users speedier access to their accounts,” he added.
 
Quick Touch is currently available on iOS-based devices that support biometric capability such as the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3.  The technology leverages Apple's built-in Touch ID fingerprint security solution on these devices.   

The Maybank2U app can be downloaded from Apple's App Store, and also comes with features that take advantage of the Apple Watch.

Quick Balance on Apple Watch not only provides customers with account balances, but alerts the customer through the use of colours on the credit card outstanding balance. For example, if the outstanding balance is above a certain threshold, the colour on the watch screen will change to red, whereas if the outstanding balance is low, it will be green.

Quick Balance has registered more than 100,000 new users since its introduction five months ago, Maybank claimed.
 
“With the introduction of Quick Touch, we are targeting to grow our Quick Balance user base by 20% by year-end,” said Hamirullah.
 
The number of active users who use the full Maybank2u app exceeds two million, the bank claimed. Maybank2u has over 7.8 million registered users who access the banking portal via personal computers and mobile devices.

Maybank is the latest financial institution globally to warm up to Apple's Touch ID solution.  Earlier this year, banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest in the UK also announced similar initiatives.

But this doesn't mean PINs will go away anytime soon. Commenting on the security integrity of Apple's Touch ID last year, Capgemini Consulting's analyst Christine Chanier had warned, "In the world of passwords, one way of maintaining a high level of security is to change them regularly. Annoying, but easy. Changing your fingerprint... well, you get the idea."
 
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