Banks in South Africa are increasingly tapping into a government scheme that links customers to fingerprint data.Department of Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said this week that takeup of the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) had rapidly increased in recent months.As of December 2015, 3,682 branches of various banks were using 16,058 finger-scanning devices, Gigaba told ITWeb.Reports received from banks show syndicates now know they cannot get away with ID photo replacements due to the HANIS verification. Identity fraud has therefore decreased.”If we are further to quantify the gains, we would say the HANIS verification service potentially prevents the loss of R322 million (US$19.3 million) per month. Thus, an annual potential prevention estimate could come to about R3.8 billion. We are mindful also of the difficulty entailed in quantifying identity fraud.”Gigaba noted that the department will continue to build its working relationship with the banking and insurance industries to curb fraud, particularly identity theft, and its resultant financial implications.The partnership between home affairs and the banking industry dates back to around 2007, which saw the online fingerprint verification system being officially launched in 2009.

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