Mexico's Banks Adopt Biometric Identification

Financial crime has become a major concern to governments and financial institutions around the world. Knowing exactly who you are doing business with has never been more important. Financial crimes may involve fraud (check, credit card, mortgage, etc.), identity theft, money laundering, account takeover, forgery and much more. Many financial institutions have found that fingerprint biometric technology is an ideal way to significantly reduce the risks of fraud and financial crime through greatly improved customer identification.

Mexican banks are world leaders in the move to fingerprint biometrics; for example, Santander Mexico will invest one billion pesos (US$ 45M) in biometrics over the next five years and expects to register the fingerprints of more than 3.7 million customers in the country during the first stage. Santander, along with dozens of Mexico’s largest financial institutions, has chosen Integrated Biometrics (IB) as their preferred fingerprint scanner vendor because Integrated Biometrics’ scanners utilize the company’s patented LES (light emitting sensor) film that delivers best-in-class performance in speed, size, weight, ease-of-use, durability and affordability.

Miguel Loera Marin, Director General for Mexico City-based Biometria Aplicada, explains that “the combination of capabilities IB scanners provide - mobility, reliability, durability, low power consumption and ease-of-use – has led virtually all major financial services organizations in our nation to choose IB scanners.” Many of these banks are large, global institutions with access to biometric vendors from the US, Europe, Israel and Asia, yet IB was their clear choice. Miguel notes that other biometric systems that were considered “had many issues such as battery life, recognition problems, and lack of end-to end-encryption. IB’s secure sensors proved superior to the others because they do not use batteries and are able to recognize fingers that are dry, rough or scratched.”

According to a 2018 national mandate from Mexico’s Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores’ (CNBV), an independent agency of Mexico’s Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit, Mexican financial institutions must collect biometric identification data every time a new account (including credit cards, checking, savings, payroll, and loans) is opened—a directive that is now being accomplished primarily with IB fingerprint scanners. In fact, the list of banks where IB scanners are deployed is so extensive that IB devices have become the standard for the entire nation. These banks, with more than 40 million accounts and US$450 billion in assets, serve their customers across more than five thousand individual branches.

However, IB fingerprint scanners are not only in daily use at the teller lines and back offices at these branches, they are also deployed on mobile devices in businesses and homes across Mexico. IB’s FBI-certified fingerprint biometric scanners connect to tablets or phones via a micro-USB cable and use very little power – they actually feature the lowest power consumption in the certified fingerprint device market. Plus, they are the thinnest and lightest FBI-certified biometric scanners in the world. Miguel notes that “our financial services clients love the flexibility that IB’s mobile biometrics gives them. Another important consideration is that they are very durable and not affected by bright light.”

Miguel’s firm, Biometria Aplicada, Mexico’s leading distributor of biometric identification systems and a certified IB Partner, also appreciates IB’s sophisticated SDK (Software Development Kit). He enthuses that “IB’s extensive SDK and robust firmware makes it much easier for our developers to create secure and powerful middleware, databases and applications for our financial services clients.” With the identities of accountholders now secured via IB’s easy to use fingerprint scanner, Mexican banks have made great strides toward ensuring that these accounts will not be used for ID theft/account takeover, tax evasion, money laundering by drug cartels, or other criminal purposes.

Mexico is not alone in the need to confront KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) issues – these are truly international problems facing every country. Instead of paying mere lip service when addressing these complex issues, Mexico is tackling them head on with a identification solution which never captures a biometric without the subject’s full awareness and consent, as opposed to facial recognition and other technologies which capture biometric information even without the individual’s knowledge.

Bringing the previously “unbanked” into the formal economy via bank accounts increases the security of the entire financial system and promises a brighter future for those entering the formal economy by offering them access to loans and other forms of credit. Miguel concludes that “both the banks and their customers like using Integrated Biometrics’ innovative enrollment and verification fingerprint sensors. We look forward to securing not only more banks, investment and retirement fund providers and credit unions going forward, but other businesses such as convenience stores, pharmacies, and other retailers.”