Commonwealth Bank says it is the first Australian bank to offer customers secure access to their accounts using Face ID, the facial recognition technology built into Apple’s new iPhone X.
iPhone X users will be able to use Face ID to securely log-in to the CommBank App.
“Our customers use secure fingerprint logins on the CommBank App about 30 million times a month,” said Pete Steel, Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager of Digital.
“Extending that functionality to Face ID is part of our ongoing work to provide a better banking experience to our customers through simple, easy and secure features.”
Face ID is one of the most secure ways to log into an account because it performs in-depth mapping of an individual’s face using more than 30,000 points of reference. These include the spacing between, and shape of, facial features.
“While we strive towards convenience and ease of use, we don’t implement new technology without being able to guarantee security for customers,” he says.
Westpac has subsequently also announced a similar facility.
This despite neither banks offering Apple Pay.