Remember when the FBI complained about the cost and delay of building a fingerprint database from remote offices? CIO gave the story in 2004.

The wider use of fingerprint scanning technology in recent years has made it easier than ever for law enforcement officials to share information about criminals and quickly compare a suspect’s fingerprint image with millions of similar imprints, according to a January report from the General Accounting Office. But it can still take small police departments that can’t afford the electronic equipment more than five months to mail batches of fingerprint cards to state repositories, the report said.

…the GAO found that many small law enforcement agencies still don’t have the money for Livescan optical scanning equipment that allows them to electronically submit fingerprints.

Fast-forward to today and the banking industry has stepped up to solve the problem. Fingerprints are now taken electronically for account holders or when an account is opened. The module upgrade to existing ATMs to support fingerprint reading was hailed last week as a major success in Vietnam.

Mekong Development Bank triples current account base with launch of Vietnam’s first biometric debit card, through TEMENOS T24 Biometrics, at NCR ATMs across Vietnam Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the market leading provider of banking software, today announces the launch of Vietnam’s first fingerprint-enabled debit card, at Mekong Development Bank. The bank has implemented Temenos T24 Biometric fingerprint authentication to provide the ‘unbanked’ population of Vietnam with access to banking services.

[…]

[Lee Volante, director business solution group for APAC], Temenos continues: “Mekong Development Bank’s experimental nature in the field of biometrics is something for other banks to sit up and pay attention to.”

No word yet on the impact to solving crimes.