Gulf Bank Kuwait First in Region to Use Biometrics for Digital Banking

Daon's IdentityX Platform Used to Enable Multi-modal Biometric Authentication

RESTON, Virginia, May 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Daon and Gulf Bank Kuwait announced today their partnership in providing biometric authentication within Gulf Bank Kuwait's new mobile banking application. Daon's IdentityX® Platform enables Gulf Bank Kuwait's customers to seamlessly authenticate using their face and fingerprint to quickly and easily assert their identity online across multiple channels.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151030/282469LOGO

César González-Bueno, Gulf Bank's Chief Executive Officer said, "Digital banking is important to our customers and we wanted to make it convenient and simple for them to conduct their banking transactions with our new mobile banking app. By working with Daon, we were able to leverage cutting-edge technology with global best practices to provide our customers with an enhanced mobile banking experience.  Our customers can now login with biometrics using their fingerprint touch id and 'Blinking to Bank' facial recognition, from anywhere in the world, and perform a wide array of banking transactions efficiently and securely."

Daon's IdentityX Platform provides fingerprint, face and voice recognition, along with other authentication factors, which will provide convenient, fast, secure authentication for Gulf Bank Kuwait's customers. IdentityX was designed with an eye toward the future, allowing Daon customers to easily add new biometrics as they become commercially available. This innovative solution will be the first deployment in the Middle East and illustrates Gulf Bank Kuwait's commitment to their customers.

Tom Grissen, Daon's Chief Executive Officer said, "We are seeing tremendous opportunity for banks to leverage the power of biometrics to improve their customer experience.  Convenient and secure authentication has become critical in today's digital economy and we are very happy supporting Gulf Bank Kuwait on their journey to a mobile first, customer first strategy. Their customers can now login on to the Gulf Bank mobile app in a few seconds, putting speed and ease of use first. Our experience with banking customers like Gulf Bank Kuwait allows us to help our valued customers understand the actual benefits from using biometrics and how to achieve successful large scale implementations quickly and efficiently."

About Gulf Bank Kuwait
Gulf Bank, established in 1960, is one of the largest and leading retail banks in Kuwait. It has a network of 56 branches, with total assets of KD 5,438 million for year ended 31 December 2015. Gulf Bank is currently ranked "A" by the three leading international credit rating agencies and offers a wide range of banking and financial products and services. Gulf Bank has been recognized with numerous awards, spread over different sectors of its work, including consumer banking, wholesale banking, products, performance, marketing, human resources, and corporate social responsibility.  These include awards from respected international publications such as The Asian Banker, International Finance Magazine (IFM); International Banker; Banker Middle East; and Arabian Business Magazine.

Gulf Bank is strongly committed to giving back to Kuwait through its corporate social responsibility program.  The Bank supports numerous events focusing on youth, education, health and fitness, helping the underprivileged, women's empowerment, as well as promoting Kuwait's heritage and culture.  For more information about Gulf Bank log onto: www.e-gulfbank.com or see our social media channels on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

About Daon
Daon is a leading provider of biometric authentication and identity assurance solutions focused on meeting the needs of enterprise and public sector customers worldwide. Daon has pioneered methods for securely and conveniently combining biometric and identity capabilities in multiple channels. Daon empowers its customers and their users to choose the factor or combination of factors that best meet their situational needs and preferences.

Daon's offerings include rich mobile biometric authentication and biometric identity management solutions with deployments that include payments verification, digital banking, border management, immigration, employee credentialing, national ID, passports, driver's licenses, voter registration, beneficiary verification, and cloud authentication.

For more information, please visit www.daon.com or get to know us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Media and Analyst Contacts

Laila Al-Qatami, Assistant General Manager, Corporate Communications
+965 9497 2156
laila@gulfbank.com.kw

Travis Wachter, Director of Marketing Communications
+1 (703) 984-4016
travis.wachter@daon.com