Westpac Uses Smartphone Cameras for ATM Card Activation

Debit and credit card details are captured via OCR.

Westpac has begun offering its customers the ability to activate credit and debit cards using a smartphone camera.

Using the Westpac Mobile Banking app on an Android or iPhone handset, a customer of the bank can snap a picture of their new card.

Text on the card is captured using OCR and customers are prompted to confirm the details are accurate before the card is activated.

“We want to make mobile banking as easy and convenient as possible for our customers and that’s why we have launched card activation by smartphone camera,” the bank’s CIO, Mike Wood, said in a statement.

“The new feature is a timesaver for our customers who can activate their card when and where it suits them without the need to call customer service, visit a local branch or manually type in card numbers.”

Financial institutions are taking advantage of the many features available in today’s smartphones, particularly when designing new functionality to support ATMs and mobile banking. Capabilities range from capturing card data using OCR readers, to depositing checks using mobile remote deposit capture, to using QR codes for ATM prestaging/cardless cash transactions. And this is just the tip pf the iceberg, as new use cases are evaluated as part of FIs’ product roadmap requirements and features available with new mobile devices.

Overview by Ed O’Brien, Director, Banking Channels Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group

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