The UK's biggest building society, the Nationwide, is introducing electronic signatures to try to prevent fraud.
It announced plans to rollout biometric signature capture and verification technology to its 681 UK branches. Work will begin on installation during the first quarter of next year.
The society intends to remove paper from branches and eliminate filing and retrieval systems.
The ability to check a signature against previously captured data should make it easier to identify someone than the current system of checking signatures.
Electronic pads sample the signature 200 times a second, capturing data, including the position of the stylus and the pressure exerted on the pad.
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