The high level of security now available on smartphones has led Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to plan ATMs that use validation by phone rather than card and PIN, sources said Tuesday.

It will be the first major Japanese bank to offer a service that does not require bank cards. While a final decision has not been taken yet on timing, the bank hopes to launch the system in the spring of 2018, the sources said.

Customers will be able to obtain cash merely by holding their smartphone near the ATM and then validating it with their password or fingerprints, the sources said.

In a similar move, Japan's leading bank plans to enable customers with smartphones to open accounts without registering their personal seal — an equivalent to a signature in Japanese bureaucracy — from roughly September, the sources said.

The envisaged service will make it easier for customers to open bank accounts, requiring them merely to download an app and register details such as name and address, the sources added.

Seven Bank plans to launch a service allowing customers who have accounts at Jibun Bank to make deposits and cash withdrawals using smartphones.