Biometric Banking

Sept 24, 2007 (LBO) – ICICI Bank, India's second-largest bank, is planning to demonstrate in Sri Lanka its smart card technology that helped create innovative products and take banking to rural India, even to illiterate farmers, a top official said. Chanda Kochhar, Deputy Managing Director of ICICI Bank, said its technology partner Financial Information Network and Operations (FINO) will be brought down in October to demonstrate the products that helped the bank penetrate un-banked areas in the sub-continent.

FINO's biometric smart cards enable people to identify themselves by their thumbprints at ATM and other terminals.

The card also offers a variety of products including savings, loans, insurance, fixed deposits and remittances and has helped ICICI take banking products to farmers in rural areas without a costly branch network.

Kochhar said ICICI adopted a technology intensive approach instead of a manpower-based to get over the cost hurdle of taking banking to remote, rural areas.

"Instead of a product driven approach, we see how we can create new products to satisfy customers' needs," she told the inaugural session of the 19th anniversary convention of the Association of Professional Bankers Friday.

ICICI's approach w