Platforms for opening bank accounts using electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) from TMB Bank and Kasikornbank (KBank) recently graduated from the Thai central bank’s regulatory sandbox. The banks are using facial recognition technology to verify customers’ identity.
Such platforms are expected to help boost the growth of the mobile banking market, as it will reduce the time needed to open a savings account and lower banks’ operating costs. At the same time, it will save customers trips to bank branches.
For the time being, however, only existing customers of the two banks can open a new deposit account through the digital channel, using their passport, along with the National ID card and android smartphone equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) function. In the next phase, new customers will be able to use cross-bank identity verification through the National Digital ID (NDID) platform to open deposit accounts. They can use a virtual ID card on their smartphones with iOS and Android operating systems.
Kbank has been collecting and updating customers’ facial data at all branches nationwide since 2019, in preparation for account opening through facial recognition technology. KBank is expanding the number of its dip-chip points to 100,000 by 2020. The dip-chip is an authentication machine that allows insertion of ID cards into the reader, at its ATMs and retail stores in collaboration with several business partners. The bank aims to expand the number of dip-chip points to 100,000 nationwide this year.
According to the Bank of Thailand, six other banks, namely KBank, Siam Commercial Bank, Bangkok Bank, Bank of Ayudhya, TMB Bank and CIMB Thai Bank, are testing their identity verification in the regulatory sandbox. They are expected to offer digital deposit account opening by the end of 2020.
(Sources: The Bangkok Post, Thailand Today, Biometric Update)
