Watch BBC Lunchtime News Coverage: View or Download [4MB] Requires Windows Media Player

VNUNet.com:
Nationwide to use biometric signatures
By Andy McCue

Nationwide building society is to use biometric signatures to combat fraudulent transactions and cut the use of paper.

The company has been working on the "multimillion pound" project for two years, and is set to trial the technology at 10 branches early next year.

An electronic pad situated on the counter will record a customer's signature several times and keep a record of it which can be verified when they carry out transactions.

The technology records the "rhythm" of the signature, measuring speed, direction and acceleration at five-millisecond intervals.

Gerry Coppell, technology development controller at Nationwide, told vnunet.com that the trial involving 120 staff had shown that it was impossible to forge a signature just by copying it.

"The trial produced zero cases of rejecting anyone who was legitimate, and zero cases of accepting anyone who wasn't. It also produced five cases which it highlighted as borderline and requiring further investigation," he said.

The signatures will initially be used for opening accounts, but Coppell expects them to be available to all customers for cash withdrawals in a year's time.

The building society is confident that the technology is robust enough for the signatures to be admissible as evidence in court.

"We have not had to prove anything yet as it can only be proven when a test case goes through the courts," explained Coppell.

Iris recognition technology was initially tested, but proved too expensive. Coppell said that he expects the project to achieve a return on investment "within five years" by cutting fraud and reducing the paper flow.

The technology has been developed in the UK by software consultancy Florentis, which designed the verification engine, and MotionTouch, which produced the signature pads and integration software.

Henry Powell, sales director at MotionTouch, confirmed that Nationwide is the first company in the world to try a project on this scale with retail customers.

"This is a unique test, and certainly the banks in the US, Europe and the UK are watching this very closely," he said.

BBC News Online:
Hi-tech signatures to fight fraud

The humble signature goes hi-tech

The UK's biggest building society, the Nationwide, is to introduce electronic signatures to try to prevent fraud.

It is believed to be the first time so-called biometric technology has been rolled out on the High Street in the UK.

Customers will prove their identity by the way they physically sign their name. The system measures the precise speed and direction of the hand as it writes. 

Signature capture may not be as well-known as iris or fingerprint recognition, but Nationwide is hopeful it will save it millions of pounds and make a giant step towards a paperless office. 

Signature profile 

Nationwide customers will create e-signature

Nationwide customers will be asked to sign their names on an electronic pad. 

The image will be embedded into an electronic document along with information on the characteristics of the signatures such as pressure and speed of the writing. 

This will then become a legal signature. 

The system will ask users to offer between three to six signatures before it is happy it has a full profile of their writing style. 

According to handwriting experts, the actual style of the signature is less important than how the pen is held and the pressure used when writing. 

Nationwide has been researching the use of biometrics for identify customers for two years and is convinced that the system will be extremely robust. 

"We have 70 processes that need a signature and that generates a huge amount of paper. We anticipate significant cost savings," said a spokesman for Nationwide. 

Come of age 

"We believe that this will be the first example of biometrics being rolled out across the UK in a customer-facing application," said Mark Lockie, editor of Biometric Technology Today. 

"It shows that the biometric industry has come of age," he added. 

Biometric technology is already being used by many organisations and governments around the world. 

One of the latest uses of the technology is on the Afghan-Pakistan border where the UN uses biometrics to identify refugees. 

About 2000 refugees a day are being identified using iris recognition. It is hoped the system will cut down on refugees fraudulently claiming more than one aid package. 

Biometric technology is increasingly being used by the aviation industry. New projects include fingerprint recognition of over 1,600 staff at London City Airport and a system to identify customers for some United Airline flights from Heathrow to the US.

IEE:
Nationwide to Use Electronic Signature Pads

Nationwide Building Society is to introduce electronic signature pads for customers in all of its branches from early next year. The project will be the UK’s largest biometrics installation for public use. The legally-compliant handwritten signature technology comes from Surrey-based MotionTouch. It will supply over 1400 of its Legapads – electronic pads for capturing signatures – for Nationwide’s 681 branches across the UK.

The pad samples a signature 200 times a second, recording x and y coordinates, pressure and time. From these variables it can record the signature’s unique biometric characteristics: the speed through the letters, rhythm, direction, flow and pressure as well as the end result.

MotionTouch sales director Henry Powell says the best forgers in the world may be able to reproduce the appearance of a signature on paper, but it’s impossible to also copy how it was done: the direction of the pen, where the writer slows down or speeds up and many other subtle variables.

This information also helps the Legapad to reduce the number of genuine signatures it rejects by taking into account where in the signature the writer might vary their signature according to, for example, the writing surface or their own mood at the time.

Integrity testing, time stamping and unique device identities mean the signature is legally binding under the European Digital Signature Directive and the UK Electronics Communications Bill.
The pad has a paper-feel surface for forensic reasons as well as customer convenience. “The surface of the pad is important because if the validity of the signature is questioned, a forensic examiner will look for similarities in the electronic version against a pen on paper sample of their signature. The paper-feel surface of the Legapad enables more accurate dynamic signature capture.”

Other Articles

• The Register - Nationwide Banks on Biometrics
• BiometriTech News - Nationwide Building Society to Roll Out Signature Capture and Verification at its UK Branches
• Reachlive - In Search of Recognition