La Jornada: Registering your cell phone is necessary to maintain operations, warn BBVA and Banamex

BBVA reported that people who do not link their cell phone line with their Unique Population Registration Code (CURP) before July 1, as indicated in the official provision, could present problems in two types of operations in which the bank uses text messages (SMS).

“We use SMS as a second authentication factor for certain administrative processes, such as registering the application for a new customer. Or if you change your device, your phone, in the registration process you will receive an SMS or a call. If you did not register your line, you will not receive the SMS or the call, and therefore you will not be able to register your app on the new device,” commented Mauricio Pallares, BBVA communications director.

Banamex, for its part, explained that registering the line ensures the continuity of all the digital services that its clients use daily, which, for protection and security, can be authenticated with SMS by the bank, for example, when they need to change their password.

Banamex has around 14 million clients who carry out their operations online instead of in branches, which represents 77 percent of the total.

At BBVA, 80 percent of the 34 million customers use the application to carry out their financial operations.

The biggest impact for users who resist linking their cell phone line – a mandatory provision with a deadline of June 30 – will be the blocking of SMS, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT).

Users must register directly with their telephone provider: Telcel, AT&T, Movistar and Altán Redes, which provides operational infrastructure to Bait and 140 other virtual mobile operators.

Lines that are blocked for not registering before June 30 will not have access to cellular data to use applications, but will be able to operate them if they connect to Wi-Fi.

On April 20, Norma Solano, president commissioner of the CRT, emphasized that the intention of registering cell phones is security, that the government will not have access to that information and telephone companies will not request biometric data from their customers.

“What we want is to eliminate the anonymity of millions of lines (…) It is an action within the framework of a much broader strategy undertaken by the Mexican government against telephone extortion and other crimes associated with the use of mobile lines by crime,” he said.

“Banking institutions are inviting users to register their cell lines and combat fraud and extortion, preventing criminals from remaining anonymous,” said Banamex, for its part.