Media Release

Australian-first application of finger-sensor technology for mobile banking logon

Sydney, 21 August 2014 – St.George Bank has today announced it is preparing to launch new technology in September which will allow customers to securely logon to mobile banking on their iPhone by using the fingerprint sensor, known as Touch ID.

The new technology will be the first that is widely available in the banking industry and will add further security and ease of use for the increasing number of customers using smart phones to do their banking on the go.

St.George CEO, George Frazis said the technology is currently in the final testing stages and will be rolled out on the iPhone 5S across St George Banking Group in September, closely followed by the Westpac Banking Group.

“We’re excited to be at the forefront of innovation, providing quicker and easier ways for our customers to do their banking. We’re in the final stages of preparing the technology for a wide-scale roll-out within the St.George Banking Group in September.”    

“This initiative follows a number of advancements in technology led by St.George, including the launch of mobile banking on smartwatches earlier this year and the development of a banking application for Google Glass, which will be ready when the glasses are launched. The digital and mobility revolution is seeing some truly exciting innovations for the banking industry,” he said.

St.George CIO, Dhiren Kulkarni said St.George has used existing technology from fingerprint enabled phones – such as iPhone 5S – to build enhanced capability that allows customers to log on to mobile banking in a secure way.

“We have seen a 350 per cent increase in the number of customers doing their banking on mobile devices since we launched our app in 2009, that’s why the launch of Touch ID for mobile banking is such an important advancement for mobile banking and for the industry more broadly.”

The finger-sensor technology will be one option for customers wanting to login to mobile banking. The home-screen of the St.George mobile banking application will have an option to securely use Touch ID or enter other security credentials, such as a security code or access number and password.

The Touch ID technology for mobile banking will be available when Apple’s IOS8 operating platform is launched, currently planned for September. Customers can download the updated version of the St.George mobile banking application at this time.

The fingerprint logon for mobile banking capability will also be extended to the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S5 in the coming months with St.George currently developing the technology for this platform.

Media contact: 
Fiona Macrae / Mark Roberts
02 9236 2973 / 02 9236 3521
macraef@stgeorge.com.au / robertsm@stgeorge.com.au