RISK: Tangerine bank experiments with facial recognition tech

Scotiabank subsidiary Tangerine is experimenting with facial-recognition technology on smartphones.

“No one’s sure what the gold standard is going to be, so you have to have the ability to be trying and testing and see what works,” CEO Peter Aceto told Bloomberg. “Certainly interacting with our mobile app using your face, using your voice, using your finger are things that we’re going to enhance and deploy in a much broader way.”

Earlier this month, RBC introduced a “voice biometrics” program for when clients phone its call centres. A person’s “voiceprint,” RBC says, includes more than 100 characteristics, such as pitch and accent, in a regular conversation.

Tangerine, which Scotiabank acquired from Netherlands-based ING Direct in 2012, was ahead of the curve with mobile banking in 2010, and began allowing customers to deposit cheques by taking a photo in 2013.

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This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.