Airtel Payments Bank, a fintech subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, has just announced the launch of a Face Authentication-based savings bank account opening for customers. The facility is meant to make the onboarding procedure for customers more secure, convenient and seamless. It is worth noting that Airtel Payments Bank is the first in India to introduce such a service for its customers. The Business Correspondents (BCs) of the bank would be able to open an account for the user just by undertaking the face authentication e-KYC. Airtel Payments Bank said that the authentication is processed using a newly developed mobile application by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The BC would just require a smartphone to open the account for the customer because of the presence of this application. Airtel Payments Bank will make this service available across all of its 500,000 banking points by the end of this year. Speaking about the launch, Anubrata Biswas, MD & CEO of Airtel Payments Bank, said, “We at Airtel Payments Bank believe in strengthening our bouquet of digital services with the latest technology and provide our customers access to improved digital banking solutions which are user-friendly. This safe and secure authentication process has been made possible by the efforts of the UIDAI, which is a huge step in furthering the cause of inclusive banking in the country.” “This KYC facility uses AI/ML based Face Authentication RD Application, which helps in the prevention of fraudulent activities by cross-checking individual’s photo with the image captured in Aadhaar and allows secure customer onboarding,” added Anubrata Biswas. Until now, for authentication purposes, the Aadhar-based OTP or fingerprint biometric was used. But now, this will be the first time that a bank in India will be using face authentication for e-KYC.
