Voice recognition: what your bank needs?

Banks are trumpeting their use of voice recognition technology in a way not seen before, using it to demonstrate their innovation credentials and customer centricity. Joy Macknight looks at the ways in which it is being utilised.

by Joy Macknight

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Voice recognition: what your bank needs?

In February 2016, HSBC announced that it was making voice authentication available to more than 15 million HSBC UK and First Direct customers by the end of the third quarter of the year, making it the largest roll out of this type of biometric technology in the UK to date.

Instead of verifying a customer through a traditional password or PIN, their voice is assessed against more than 100 indicators from behavioural measures, such as cadence and pitch, to physical measures, such as the size of their larynx and vocal tract.

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Joy Macknight

Joy Macknight is the editor of The Banker. She joined the publication in 2015 as transaction banking and technology editor. Previously, she was features editor at Profit & Loss, editorial director at Treasury Today and editor at gtnews. She also worked as a staff writer on Banking Technology and IBM Computer Today, as well as a freelancer on Computer Weekly. She has a BSc from the University of Victoria, Canada.