Dubai: The days of the tedious process of PINs, passwords and security questions to authenticate a bank transaction over the phone is coming to an end. Now, you just need to speak into the phone.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank is the first bank in the region which is turning to voice biometrics to authenticate its customers, identity.
Today, customers are asked to prove their identity through a set of complex questions and passwords before doing a transaction over the phone.
Nuance Communications’ next generation voice passwords enable more secure and effortless authentication in customer service through natural voice patterns and can detect fraudsters.
ADCB is offering voice biometrics in Arabic, English and Hindi.
“Security is only a small part of the whole process. The primary issue is that 91 per cent of the people are dissatisfied with current authentication methods and end up in typing their passwords wrong. So, customers don’t need to remember their passwords for the rest of their lives,” Anil Kumar, Regional Director for Middle East, Africa, Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe at Nuance Communications, told Gulf News.
Unique voiceprint
Voice biometrics securely identifies each individual through their unique voiceprint. From the registered mobile number, the voice biometrics technology compares the customer’s spoken passphrase to a registered voiceprint. It permits the customer to proceed with the transaction only if matched.
He said that 15 million customers are using this facility in Turkey alone and another 20 million in the US. In total, there are 45 million customers using voice biometrics.
In the digital world, he said that voiceprint is a must. In the biometric verification, it has to be either fingerprint or iris scan. The advantage of voiceprint is that it can be used on a mobile app, online and one-on-one.
“We are talking to all the banks and telecom operators in the UAE. There are some deals to be signed before end of the year,” he said.
