NAB and Microsoft test facial recognition for ATM withdrawals

The cloud-based application, developed using Azure Cognitive Services, has been designed to improve the customer experience, removing the need for a card or even a phone.

The system does not store images of customers' faces, only the biometric data, which is held securely on Microsoft’s trusted cloud platform.

Steven Worrall, MD, Microsoft Australia, says: "Cloud computing and artificial intelligence present the opportunity for a new generation of secure, streamlined financial services to be developed and rapidly deployed at scale. 

"NAB’s innovation focus is concentrated on meeting the changing needs of the customer; this concept ATM that NAB and Microsoft are working on together provides an important glimpse into the future."

Speaking in the run up to Sibos in Sydney, NAB chief technology and operations officer Patrick Wright says: "Cloud technology allows us to take advantage of features and capabilities that are world-leading and enable us to deliver at pace for our customers."

The Aussie bank has committed to cloud computing as part of its "transformation initiative", transitioning key workloads to Microsoft’s recently opened Azure Central region.