Next year, retirement fund administrators (Afore) will be required to offer their users technology contactless (contactless), but unlike the one that consists of bringing the cards to payment terminals, photographs of the workers’ fingerprints will be taken so that they can complete their procedures, Julio César Cervantes Parra, president of the organization that regulates the sector, said in an interview.
There are workers who cannot carry out procedures and operations in the Afore because they lack fingerprints due to age, work or because they are not sufficiently marked.
Fingerprint registration is an authentication mechanism used by financial institutions to prevent identity theft and fraud.
The president of the National Commission of the Retirement Savings System (Consar) explained that Afore XXI Banorte, Profuturo and Inbursa already use the technology contactlesswhich will be mandatory for everyone next year. The regulation is already in process.
This system “works with practically any cell phone and takes a photo of the fingerprints. Unlike traditional devices, such as those used by banks, in which you have to stick your hand, this technology takes a photo of the fingerprints and with algorithms extracts the fingerprint,” Cervantes explained.
“This makes it much easier for workers to compile their file. Consar regulation stipulates that Afores must have models to serve workers who have any type of disability. We are trying to take advantage of technology so that people who have already had their mark erased due to their work or their age do not have to go through difficulties.”
He clarified that although the respective circular has not yet been issued by Consar, the Afore are already working on it and Procesar already has an engine to use that technology.
Procesar is the company in charge of operating the national database of the Retirement Savings System (SAR), which stores information from the individual accounts of workers and administrators.
Consulted separately, Guillermo Zamarripa, executive president of the Mexican Association of Afore (Amafore), maintained that the Afore have compensatory and accurate controls to try to carry out procedures when fingerprints are missing.
“What is worrying on the part of the institutions is that they use people who do not have a footprint to empty accounts that do not belong to them; that is why the Afore have a series of controls that vary from institution to institution.”
He mentioned that the duty of all financial institutions is to take care of people’s savings, so there may be additional controls that allow procedures to be carried out and provide certainty about the identity of those who carry them out.