If you’ve ever tried to make transactions with your bank over the phone, you will typically be asked a series of security questions to ensure that you are who you say you are. Sometimes some banks may also require users to enter a PIN into their phone that will identify the customer as well.However over in Australia, local bank ANZ has announced that they plan to deploy the use of voice print identification for transactions that are worth over AUD$1,000. This will come in handy for customers who want to make larger transactions. Prior to this, customers who wanted to make larger transactions had to either do it via internet banking or go to the branch in person, so if neither of these options are convenient, they can at least do it over the phone and use their voice to securely identify themselves.
The technology will be provided by Nuance and according to ANZ Managing Director Customer Experience and Digital Channels Peter Dalton, voice prints contain 5-10 times more markers than a person’s fingerprints, meaning that it should in theory prove to be more secure. He adds, “We also know that people are becoming more comfortable with using their voice to do basic commands on their devices, so we see this is a natural extension of current technology and we are expecting this to be a popular enhancement of our mobile apps.”
ANZ will not be the first bank to provide such identification services as banks such as HSBC have also rolled out similar features, not to mention Nuance’s technology has also been used at banks such as Barclays Wealth. The voice print identification feature will be piloted amongst a select group of ANZ customers and staff before rolling out to more of the bank’s customers in the future.
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