All mobile phone operators will have to introduce an online fingerprint ID system for new prepaid and postpaid mobile SIM card registration, with a proposed deadline set for next February.
Furthermore the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) are urging all existing mobile users to put their fingerprints in the system voluntarily for their own security .
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said,”We urge all mobile users to participate in the system to ensure greater security of the mobile banking channel and prevent the risk of fraud, which is likely to increase in a cashless society.”
Thailand has 103 million mobile subscribers, 14 million of whom use mobile banking services.
Through a fingerprint enrolment process, mobile operators will scan each person’s fingerprints and store the records on the NBTC’s secure database server.
Mobile operators will develop an application that verifies customers’ fingerprints.
Summing up,mobile banking is a service provided by banks or other financial institutions as well as mobile operators, which allows customers to conduct some financial transactions remotely using any mobile device, with no bank account needed.
However fraud and other criminal acts targeting telecommunications networks are also becoming increasingly sophisticated.
The NBTC’s telecom committee approved the plan to use a fingerprint registration system in September.
The fingerprint system would not prove to be a financial burden on mobile operators because the investment can be deducted as a business expense from the universal service obligation (USO) fee operators pay annually to the NBTC.
Banks and mobile operators have been under pressure to raise the standards for customer authentication systems in a bid to prevent fraud through mobile banking activities which at the moment is one of the most popular mobile services.
The concern has arisen after several cases of fraud committed through mobile banking apps have occurred over the past several months.
(Source : Bangkok Post)