Spain’s CaixaBank is to deploy ATMs equipped with facial recognition technology nationwide “with the goal of offering a better user experience and greater security in transactions, particularly in the context of Covid-19”.

“The system is the first launched by a financial institution on a global level that allows users to withdraw money by simply recognising them from the image captured by the terminal’s camera, meaning they do not have to manually enter their PIN,” the bank says.

The ATMs are able to validate up to 16,000 points on the image of a user’s face and are now live in several of the bank’s Store branches in Barcelona.

In total, around 100 units will be deployed across the bank’s 30 Store branches throughout Spain.

“Upon completion of the expansion plan (forecast for mid-July 2020), CaixaBank will have one of the world’s biggest networks of ATMs fitted with commercially adopted facial recognition technology,” the bank adds.

“Facial recognition streamlines the customer identification process and enables them to make withdrawals without memorising multiple passwords.

“In addition, in the context of Covid-19, the system offers the added advantage of enabling users to withdraw cash from ATMs while minimising contact with the terminal’s surface, given that the customer does not need to use the keypad.

“The only time they have to touch the device is when selecting the amount of cash they want to withdraw, and they can do this by simply touching the ATM screen once.”

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