With permission from regulators in place and targeting a launch date in early 2016, Atom Bank has made voice and facial recognition key parts of its customer authentication strategy. Backed by investors that include Spanish banking giant BBVA, joining previous investors Woodford Investment Management, Toscafund, Marathon Asset Management and Polar Capital, Atom aims to offer all of its banking services through a mobile app. Its ideal customers will be individuals in the 18-34 year-old cohort. Its value proposition is to save the cost of building, maintaining and operating brick-and-mortar branches.

Atom Bank’s top executives have extensive experience in both low-cost and branchless banking. Its founder and chairman is Anthony Thomson who was co-founder of Metro Bank, which entered the UK banking scene in 2010 as the first newly chartered “High Street” bank in 150 years, offering innovations that included speed to open accounts as well as pet-friendly branches. Atom Bank’s CEO is Mark Mullen, who has served as the chief executive of HSBC’s telephone and online-only bank, first direct.

As explained in a blog post, Atom Bank selected biometric-based authentication in the interest of establishing speedy, secure links with customers. The intent is to give customers the confidence to carry out all of their banking activities as conveniently as possible. They will initially enroll the devices they plan to use along with a passcode, as well as the biometrics: voiceprint and facial image. The bank is already investigating how to add fingerprints to the mix.

The technology in use is Daon’s IdentityX(r) which is integrated into Atom Bank’s mobile banking system by CSC, which offers its branded ConfidentID(TM), based on the Daon technology. Atom Bank sees biometric-based authentication as a clear differentiator that is bound to appeal to young, technology savvy bank customers. It also gained confidence from the fact that USAA has enrolled voice prints and facial images for over one million of its members using the Daon platform.

Categories: Intelligent Authentication

Tags: Mobile CX, Intelligent auth, Financial Services