BSP starts biometric registration

BANK South Pacific (BSP) has launched its biometrics registration in order to protect the bank and its customers from financial crimes such as identity theft and fraud.
The bank will roll out its registration to customers from next week onwards in all its branches nationwide.
BSP group retail general manager Paul Thornton said that financial crimes such as identity theft was problem around the world and Papua New Guinea was no different.
“To help to protect customer identity, BSP will be requesting our new and existing customers to register their biometrics (fingerprints) at their respective branches.”
BSP stated that on a customer’s next visit to the branch, their officers would register their fingerprints after providing verifiable identification documents.
The customer would then be required to scan two fingers, index and middle fingers on both hands.
The bank’s system would automatically enroll the customer after checking the database for duplicate fingerprints or account identifiers.
Thereafter, the customer would be able to verify their identity by scanning their enrolled fingers.
Thornton said this could be done when a customer came into BSP branches to request for a new or replacement card, apply for a loan and/or conduct other important banking transaction and they could then check and register of their fingerprints and confirm their identity.
He said the biometrics system was being implemented to meet regulatory requirements to improve the banking process of knowing the customer and for safer and secure transactions.
“We encourage all BSP customers to co-operate with our BSP team to register their fingerprints in their next visit to a BSP branch.”