Engineers are developing the first ATM in China with facial recognition technology to identify users of bank cards.

The official Xinhua news agency reported Beijing's Tsinghua University and Hangzhou-based security company Tzekwan Technology developed the prototype.

The new technology will help reduce crimes committed using ATMs, Tzekwan Technology CEO Gu Zikun said.

Chinese ATMs had until now depended entirely on foreign technology but will now have access to an exclusively domestic system, Gu said.

The new ATM technology is being unveiled in the same month that the government launched the "Made in China" campaign to promote domestic innovation.

Companies in several countries, including the United States, have tested ATMs that use fingerprints and facial recognition technology to identify users, but questions have been raised about the viability of such systems.

Last September, the Chinese Academy of Science said it was going to launch a facial recognition app that was slated for release sometime this year.

The Chongqing-based research institute said it had set up the world's biggest Asian face database with more than 50 million records, and believe its app was 99.8 percent accurate. The technology had already been used at border controls and attendance machines.

Similarly, Ford and Intel partnered up last June unveiling that the two were working on a joint research project that could potentially use facial recognition software to create more personalised interactions between driver and vehicle.

While Australia has yet to utilise facial recognition in banking, Westpac has introduced fingerprint scanning known as Touch ID to enhance banking security. Touch ID is available via the Westpac Live app on iPhone 5S and above, Samsung Galaxy S4 and above, and iPads running iOS8.

It was part of the bank's overall strategy to implement biometrics across all banking applications of its brand.

- With AAP