Cards are no longer needed to withdraw money at three outlets of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) in Jinan, the capital city of east China's Shandong Province, as ABC has introduced facial recognition services in ATMs, according to multiple media reports.

"All you have to do is to press the ‘withdraw cash by face’ button, scan your face in the camera, enter your phone number or ID number, and enter your transaction amount and password," said Zhang Baojing, a manager of one ABC outlet in Jinan.

Zhang said the technology "can enhance the customer experience" by eliminating the risk of having bank cards illegally copied and lowering the possibility of cards getting eaten by ATMs.

Regarding some people's concerns with the safety of this new technology, security specialists pointed out that facial recognition is safe because it requires ID or phone numbers and passwords besides for the facial recognition. In addition, customers' photos will be compared with those collected by public security systems. The latest infrared cameras will also be installed, lowering the potential risk of illegal activities.

Currently, ABC limits customers to withdrawing a maximum of 3,000 yuan per day with the technology. In the future, it plans to introduce facial recognition services at 24,064 outlets across the country.

That said, ABC is not the first bank using facial recognition technology in China. In 2015, China Merchants Bank introduced the new technology in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. Last year, it expanded the service to about 1,000 ATMs in 106 cities.

However, there are some difficulties with the new service. Besides high maintenance costs, "many senior citizens might find it hard to trust or get used to this way of withdrawing money," said Yang Gan of the Smart City Research Institute in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

"In the future, payment via facial recognition and mobile payment will be complementary," Yang said.

In China, many other fields are seeing rapid development in the application of facial recognition technology. 

In Jinan, traffic police have installed facial scanners at intersections to catch jaywalkers and Beijing Normal University has debuted facial scanners in female dormitories to ensure the building’s security.