India`s DCB Bank has introduced an Aadhaar-based ATM where a customer can initiate transactions using their Aadhaar number and biometric details instead of a PIN.
“We have started the first ATM in the country which operates using the Aadhaar data. One can do a transaction without the card as well,” said the bank’s managing director and chief executive, according to a report by LiveMint.
The user keys in the 12-digit Aadhaar number or swipe their card at the ATM to initiate a transaction and then confirms their identity using the fingerprint scanner. Linking the bank account with the Aadhaar number will be essential before a customer can use the facility and initially, only DCB Bank customers will be able to make use of the service. The service requires the bank to connect with Aadhaar servers to authenticate the identity of the customer every time a transaction is initiated.
A bank spokesperson said it is a comparatively inexpensive solution and the bank, which currently has 400 ATMs, is targeting to cover its entire network under the system within a year. The first Aadhaar-based ATMs has been installed at its corporate office and the bank will wait a month for the technology to stabilize before a mass rollout.
According to NDTV, six years after the first Aadhaar card was issued, a billion people in India now have a unique number allotted to them. 93% of adults have a smart card, which provides them with an identity, and is also used to ensure that government subsidies go directly to the correct beneficiary.
