1. An apparatus for recognizing a fingerprint for a mobile terminal, the apparatus comprising: a fingerprint sensing unit which scans a fingerprint of a user; a storage unit which stores a comparison model of fingerprints of the user; and a controller which compares a similarity between the scanned fingerprint and the comparison model with a first threshold value and a second threshold value which is greater than the first threshold value, releases a lock function set in the mobile terminal if the similarity is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and registers the scanned fingerprint as a new comparison model if the similarity is equal to or greater than the second threshold value.