China’s Central bank official says technology must be mature and regulations changed before public will be allowed to open accounts using facial-recognition technology.

Banks will not be allowed to verify the identity of new customers using biometric information unless certain conditions are met, a central bank official says.

Unless a mature technological standard for biometric identification is established and financial regulations are amended accordingly, the regulator will not allow banks to adopt the practice, Fan Shuangwen, deputy director of the central bank’s payment department, said at a forum on May 24.

"The regulator has concerns about rushing to permit remote verification or say that it is safe and effective," he said. "As for when it might drop those concerns, I don’t know for sure, and it is hard to set a timetable for this."

China requires a person who wants to open an account to appear at a bank.

The opening of an account serves as a prerequisite for almost all other services a bank offers.

Experts have proposed using facial-recognition technology so people will not have to show up in person at a bank.

Chen Long, chief strategy officer of Ant Financial Services Group, which is affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., said having an employee verify the identity of bank customers is no guarantee against fraud, and the regulator should allow banks to try biometrics.