Japanese bank taps veins to boost security

“Japan’s third-largest bank, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd., will deploy a biometric security system based on vein-pattern recognition technology in branches nationwide in October, the bank said on Tuesday.

The bank will start issuing Visa credit cards with embedded integrated circuits that contain customer vein-pattern information and work with a system developed by Fujitsu Ltd. The cards will be used to confirm the identity of customers when, for example, they want to use automatic teller machines (ATMs). The cards will be issued from Oct. 12, and customers will be able to use them at 267 of the bank’s branches nationwide, according to a bank spokesman, who declined to be named. The bank did not disclose how many ATMs in each branch would be compatible with the system.

The cards function as cash cards, credit cards, and as electronic money. Palm vein patterns are read whenever cardholders use ATMs or make transactions at bank counters.”