Visa has partnered with five Indian banks on a service that uses a biometric national identity system based on biometrics to verify and authorise payments.
The national identity system, run by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and called Aadhar, will allow the global scheme, together with Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and the State Bank of India, to identify the millions of Indians without and adequate ID and bank account. Users who provide the national identity system with their iris and fingerprints data will be eligible for an account, namely the ‘Saral Money’ service.
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As part of the project micro-ATM’s will also be introduced. These are portable biometric point-of-sale devices and laptops, designed to overcome the lack of bank branches in particular areas of the country.
Prior to the introduction of ‘Saral Money’ potential customers had to provide numerous documents to verify their identity this immediately excluded a hundreds of millions of Indians.
Elizabeth Buse, group resident, APCEMEA, Visa said, "This initiative is a critical milestone for India as it solves the customer identification problem when it comes to opening bank accounts. The biometric solution is unique and we’re delighted to be playing a central role in the program. The combination of Visa working with five of our leading clients, plus the UIDAI, shows what can be achieved when powerful partnerships are created."
The service is aimed at the 210m Indians who are currently Adhaar card holders, a figure which the UIDAI hopes to expand to 600m by 2015. Phase 1 of Saral money will be rolled out in New Delhi and the National Capital Region and aims expand to the rest of the country by the end of 2013.
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