Fed up with having to remember lots of PIN codes and passwords? Fear not, Barclays and Hitachi have hit on a potential big solution.

Barclays and Hitachi Europe are launching a biometric reader so clients can kiss goodbye to having to remember PIN codes and passwords, a move that comes at a time of continued worries about financial cybercrime.

The Barclays Biometric Reader, developed with Hitachi’s Finger Vein Authentication Technology, is a “ground-breaking method for customer authentication in UK banking,” Barclays said in a statement. The technology will be available initially to Barclays Corporate Banking clients from next year. Wealth management clients at the firm will have access at a later date to this technology, a spokesperson told this publication. In due course, it is possible that the technology will be available in regions such as Asia; Hitachi, of course, is one of Japan's biggest firms and therefore likely to be developing such tech in the country.

The launch comes amid concerns about issues such as identity theft and the problem many people have of being able to remember often large numbers of specific number codes and passwords for various activities in today’s digital economy.

The biometric reader reads and verifies users’ unique vein patterns in the finger. In contrast to fingerprints, Barclays says, vein patterns are extremely difficult to replicate or spoof. The scanned finger must be attached to a live human body for the veins in the finger to be authenticated. Barclays will not hold the user’s vein pattern and there will be no public record of it, the bank said.

Hitachi’s VeinID is already used by banks for password replacement, single sign on and ATM machines, in Japan, North America and Europe.

Barclays said the combination of vein biometric and secure digital signature technology in the Barclays Biometric Reader is a “first for the global financial sector”.