NTT Com's cellphone-as-bank-account lock service

NTT Com has announced it'll be offering a service to financial institutions whereby account holders use their cellphone as a "key" to verify their identity and withdraw cash, with the withdrawal limit returning to zero when the transaction is complete. Following a spate of negative publicity about people having their accounts emptied, some banks have already introduced palm-vein authentication using IC-chipped bank cards but NTT Com says that its system will be cheaper, partly because it doesn't require ATMs to be modified. Launch is in the second half of this year.

[Via Mycom PC Web (Japanese)]