A Russian bank that admitted lending cats to customers to bring them good luck in their new homes after taking out mortgages has developed facial recognition software for pets.

The new software will allow pet owners to take out insurance for their animals further capitalising on its animal loving clients who eagerly took advantage of their service offered in 2014 to lend cats because traditionally, it’s regarded as bringing good luck if a cat walks into a new home first.

The bank had a selection of 10 cats including a ginger tabby called Apricot and a Siamese called Toffee. There was even a hairless Sphinx cat called Kuzma when the project was unveiled.

The bank at the time also further cemented its brand with lucky cats by showing delivery vans marked with Logos driving around Moscow streets as part of the promotion for the offer.

Now the same bank, Sberbank, has announced in a press statement yesterday (8th September) that it has developed facial recognition software for pets that is 94 per cent accurate for dogs and 84 per cent accurate for cats.

The program is based on the algorithm called CosFace, which is used to recognize human faces, but the bank has altered it so that it works to a high degree of accuracy with peoples pets.

During the development of the program, a large database of images of pets’ faces was created.

The system works by analyzing facial structures that can not be changed such as the distance between their eyes.

Denis Kuzmin, the director of the Protective Insurance Products and Services Division of Sberbank, said: “We have integrated the algorithm into the ‘Protected Pet’ insurance program.”

He added: “Now, to make a claim, the owner only needs to take a photo of the pet on his phone and send the photo to the insurance company along with cash receipts and statements from the veterinary clinic.”

Kuzmin concluded: “We hope to expand the possibilities of using this software to track down missing pets in the future.”

Sber stated that any cats and dogs between the ages of three months and 14 years could be insured with an insurance package that with a starting price of RUB 2.100 (GBP 20,83).

It was not revealed whether the bank continued with the promotion of lending cats, but the cats on the team were handed out hundreds of times between August and December in 2014, which was the initial period that the offer was available for.