With the deadline for biometric verification fast approaching and still a number of account holders unable to make the necessary visit to their respective bank branches for various reasons, SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) has launched the intuitive option of posting one’s severed finger to the branch for fingerprint scanning. Working in collaboration with Pakistan Post the central bank has sanctioned the national postal operator to collect and deliver fingers in sterilized plastic bags. Customers availing the service will pay a non-refundable nominal fee of Rs500/finger. Fingers would not be returned for reattachment, the SBP circular clarified.
“This was so much more convenient than having to endure that tedious exercise of visiting a branch, waiting in line to place your finger on some germ-infested glass surface for a few seconds and sign something”, commented one account holder, who availed the new service a few days back, as he got the dressing for his wound changed at a private hospital while receiving some intravenous antibiotics to bring down the 102 fever he was running due to some an infection contracted recently.
Speaking exclusively to The Dependent, governor SBP Reza Baqir explained that while the primary goal of the ‘Sever and post’ option was to speed up the biometric verification drive it would also serve as an accurate indicator of how big a money launderer one was as each missing finger on his/her hand would mean at least one account in a different bank. “It will be a game changer in the fight against corruption”, he commented.
