Passwords out as Barclays offers voice recognition

Barclays has followed First Direct’s lead by offering customers the chance to use voice recognition technology to access their online accounts, instead of answering a series of security questions on the telephone.
First Direct became the first major bank to offer a similar service earlier this year, while Lloyds Banking Group has run trials of an online system which can recognise customers’ typing patterns to deny fraudsters access to accounts.
Barclays said the system typically learns enough about a customer’s voice within just three phone calls to build a digital profile of their voice. Once in place, customers can then opt to use digital voice technology rather than use a password, if they want to.
The scheme will be open to all customers from Tuesday, but the bank will proactively offer the service to those who call up regularly, rather than those who tend to use either the branch or website as their main ways of contacting the bank.
“We have been testing it for a while to make sure it will work with the vast majority of people and that we won’t have a high rejection rate,” said Barclays’ personal banking chief Steven Cooper.
He claimed the bank has already caught a few fraudsters trying to ring up and gain access to other people’s accounts.
Barclays hopes customers will not view the new service as an invasion of their privacy, or a means of storing highly personal data.
Cooper added: “It is no more personal than [storing] a password or a recent transaction which could include buying something you don’t want to talk about.
“Different things impact on different people. It also takes away from some pain points – for example, for some of our customers who are transgender. If you have a female customer with a lower than normal voice it could be an awkward conversation, but this gets over that. This makes like a lot easier.”

TOPICS:Barclays data security