One of the leading financial institutions in Nigeria, Access Bank is set to unveil a new technology payment solution tagged FacePay that leverages on facial recognition and artificial intelligence to provide a secure, seamless and convenient way of making payments.
The face recognition payment system allows the platform to identify and verify the user without he or she inputting passwords. The recognition system matches the unique facial dimensions of the customer against the BVN image to authenticate the customer.
With the new FacePay platform which embodies facial authentication solutions for making payments transactions, it enables a quicker and convenient way of carrying out transactions especially for consumers as it is an alternative to cash, cards or mobile Phones. The new facial platform also enables more convenient payments in merchant locations and faster (withdrawals and transfers) in Access Bank branches.
For merchant payments, FacePay will be able the merchant to receive funds from paying customers with an instant settlement of that fund into the Merchant’s account. While for Access Branches, FacePay covers Intra-transfers, Inter-transfers, and cash withdrawals at the branch e.t.c.
In addition to the above benefits, the face recognition system would help the elderly or uneducated individuals in the society who cannot cope with the complexities of internet banking, mobile applications to carry out their transactions with ease.
According to Nairametrics, the three payment giants (UnionPay, WeChat, and Alipay) in China launched their facial recognition payment systems in the space of three years. In China, this payment system has become rampant with more than 300 KFCs in over 100 cities in China introduce their customers to brush face payment at the cash registers as of 2018.
In a country like China where mobile payment is already one of the most advanced in the world, customers can make a purchase simply by posing in front of point-of-sale (POS) machines equipped with cameras, after linking an image of their face to a digital payment system or bank account. Bo Hu, chief information officer of Wedome bakery told TheGuardian “I don’t even have to bring a mobile phone with me, I can go out and do shopping without taking anything.”
With the introduction of the face recognition payment system in Nigeria and across Africa, Access Bank is leading the way for other financial institutions and sectors to key into the rapidly expanding technology of facial recognition that presents a seamless and stress-free approach to payments of goods or services.
