Article

Russian bank may deploy a truth-seeking ATM

"We are not violating a client's privacy. We are not climbing into the client's brain. We aren't invading their personal lives," said Victor Orlovsky, Sberbank senior vice president of technology. "We are just trying to find out if they are telling the truth. I don't see any reason to be alarmed."

June 8, 2011

The Russian bank, Sberbank, is testing in its laboratory an ATM with a built-in lie detector, The New York Times is reporting.

The ATM, which works like a regular ATM dispensing cash, also would be equipped with voice analysis software to tell whether customers are lying when they apply for credit cards.

Based in Moscow, Sberbank wants to introduce the machines that enable Russians to apply for cards without having to talk to bank staff. To enable this, the ATMs will use a high-tech systems, including passport scans, fingerprints and three-dimensional scans for facial recognition, to verify the card applicant, the Times reports.

Sberbank has installed the prototype ATM in its branch of the future laboratory in Moscow, and the bank hopes to roll out the machine in branches and shopping malls across the country at a yet unspecified date.

"We are not violating a client's privacy. We are not climbing into the client's brain. We aren't invading their personal lives," said Victor Orlovsky, Sberbank senior vice president of technology. "We are just trying to find out if they are telling the truth. I don't see any reason to be alarmed."

Sberbank is Russia's largest bank based on assets.