Yahoo Finance Say cheese: NatWest current accounts can now be opened with a selfie
NatWest has become the first major high street bank to allow customers to open an account using a selfie and one piece of photographic ID – negating the need to visit a bank branch.
Artificial Intelligence matches up the selfie – a self-portrait image taken with a smartphone – with a valid form of photo ID (a driving licence, for example) preventing fraudulent applications and removing the need to provide ID documents by post or in branch.
Metro Bank launched a similar system last year, which enables applicants to open accounts with a selfie, ID and address history for the past three years. Digital apps such as Monzo and Starling require new customers to record a short video in order to verify identification.
NatWest said the identification process, which can take just four minutes, is delivered through a partnership with London-based fintech firm HooYu and has been sucesfully piloted with 60,000 customers so far.
David Pope, marketing director at HooYu, said customers expected to be able to do everything on demand and did not want to have to go into a branch or wait for a day or two for an account to be opened.
NatWest – part of the RBS group – has been stepping up the pace of its digital offerings. In April, the bank said it was trialling "Mimo", a virtual personal assistant that will allow users to switch insurance, subscription and energy deals through their bank for the first time.
The app will use new technology made possible by Open Banking, a flagship policy introduced last year to encourage customers to switch by forcing banks to make it easier to share their financial data with third parties.
A few weeks later, NatWest announced another trial in which customers are able to approve payments over £30 with their fingerprints rather than a personal identification number (PIN).
Banks are increasingly adopting biometric technology, such as fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as a form of payment, allowing customers to do away with passwords, PINs and cards.
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