Portugal’s Crédito Agrícola has introduced a new system that allows staff to open new accounts for individuals and small business owners simply by scanning the details and signature as on their Citizen Cards (Cartão de Cidadão).
The new CA Express service scans the card and signature which is enough proof required for opening and running a new account. The Portuguese Citizen’s Card or Portugese passport can be used and verified when making transfers or carrying out other in-branch activities.
CA Express will enable the bank to save money as it will no longer be producing reams of paper for banking or savings processes and the customer will not have to provide endless proof of address document copies when asking a teller the time of day.
The customer’s detsild will be as oper their Citizen's Card and held on computers with any subsequent contracts being pre-completed to reduce admin time.
The documentation for the customer when taking out a contract, for savings or insurance etc, will be sent by email as will contract updates from time to time.
The president of Crédito Agrícola in Portugal, José Maia Alexander, said today that "this innovation shows that we are at the forefront. We have even anticipated one of the measures recently announced by the Government in the new Simplex+ process for the third quarter of 2017."
Portugal’s banking sector could do well to follow Crédito Agrícola’s example in reducing the tonnage of interminable pieces of paper for the simplest of in-branch transactions.
Expat associations are making enquiries as to the proceedure for non-card-carrying residents.
