Account opening with NFC Qorus Banking Innovation Awards 2014 - Winner

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is in the process of developing a mobile app that enables customers to use near field communications (NFC) technology to open an account via their smartphones. Applicants will simply place their driving licence near to their smartphone and the solution will use NFC and the integrated chip (IC) in the driving licence to evaluate the authenticity of the identification form and capture personal data, such as name, address and date of birth. This data will then be automatically submitted to the bank, without the customer needing to enter a physical branch, or send a copy of identification to the bank. Initially, the service will be limited to Android smartphones, which are already equipped with NFC technology. In the near future it will be expanded to the iPhone as Apple increases its adoption of NFC technology. As the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is the first major bank to offer people the ability to apply for an account via a smartphone, it is in a good position to expand its customer base among mobile users.