ICICI Bank's mobile banking application iMobile has quietly enabled fingerprint login for Android devices, MediaNama had learnt from reliable sources. With this, customers can log into the app without entering a username or password. The app's Google Play Store page also shows login through fingerprint and has updated its permission to access them through Android Fingerprint Authentication. The bank has already enabled fingerprint login and authentication on iOS devices through Apple's Touch Id. However, the mobile phone application will NOT allow authentication for payments through fingerprints. For UPI, NEFT and IMPS transactions, Android customers will still have to enter a mobile PIN while iOS customers will need to enter card details. It needs to be emphasised that the apps will NOT be matching the fingerprints with fingerprints on Aadhaar. As such, the fingerprints will be only stored locally on the device and the information will not be stored on ICICI bank's servers or any other third-party server. Note that ICICI Bank isn't the first to enable fingerprint login for mobile banking applications. IndusInd Bank had enabled the same in July 2016 while Standard Chartered Bank India had enabled the same in June 2016. Aadhaar Pay and fears of fingerprint authentication The fact that the bank will not enable fingerprint authentication for financial transactions is significant. The development comes at a time when the government is pushing banks to adopt the Aadhaar Pay, a payment system where users can link their bank accounts to their Aadhaar credentials. To make a payment, the customers will…
