NatWest recently introduced biometric approval on its app for transactions such as payments to a new account. It requires customers to look into the phone and blink (presumably to show we’re alive and not corpses propped up in front of the camera by some fraudster). And, in my experience, it hardly ever works. I’ve just sat here for four minutes, blinking like an idiot with the app telling me to move the camera closer until it’s virtually up my nose, until the approval time expired. This has been my repeated experience. Very annoying. But from a quick browse online I see I’m not alone.
CM, London
You are not alone. Review websites resound with the ire of NatWest customers locked out of their accounts because the facial recognition technology does not recognise their faces. It is, of course, a good thing that banks are stepping up security to prevent fraud, although facial recognition software is controversial, and other banks seem to have introduced biometrics without such hitches.
