HSBC is to allow business customers to pass ID security checks on their mobile phones using facial recognition technology, with a process dubbed "selfie verification."

The UK banking giant will now let clients open new accounts by uploading headshots and cross-referencing them with official identity documents such as drivers' licences or passports.

The new app is available on Android and iOS, and is supposedly capable of recognising and verifying documents from around 150 countries worldwide.

HSBC claims that the new technique has been "introduced to better meet the changing banking behaviours of customers," who apparently prefer to use digital channels where possible. Almost half of all new HSBC business current accounts, we're told, are now opened online; in 2013, that figure was just 10 percent.

“Through simplifying the ID verification process, we’ll be able to save our business customers time and open accounts quicker. We also expect the convenience and speed of a ‘selfie’ to become the verification method of choice for our customers, who no longer need to visit a branch to complete the process,” said HSBC’s global propositions boss Richard Davies.

The HSBC group has around 4,400 offices in 71 countries and territories across Asia, Europe, North and Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa, holding assets in the region of £1.95 trillion ($2.6 trillion), making it one of the world's biggest banking institutions.