Société Générale to introduce biometrics to French banking

The French banking company, Société Générale, has announced it will allow its French customers to open online bank accounts using biometrics.

The firm announced that facial recognition will be introduced to its security services through a blog post.

The bank claims it is “deploying this technology to simplify the banking process and reinforce personal data protection and confidentiality”.

The multinational financial services firm has become the first bank in France to acquire an agreement from the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) to deploy the technology on a commercial level.

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“In today’s world, transformed by new technological boundaries and consumer habits, Societe Generale stakes claim to its ambition to be the benchmark bank in terms of customer satisfaction: a bank focused on high added-value services and equipped with phygital (physical and digital) interfaces.”

Société Générale has opted to introduce biometrics due to its “universal, unforgeable nature” – the technology should work as an operational and innovative way to ensure security and combat fraud, whilst conforming to CNIL’s data protection regulations.

With the news, the bank has set a target of increasing the amount of new accounts opened by 2020 by 30%.