6 December 2007

Banks voice approval of phone biometrics

Steve Gold

Several banks are adopting voice biometric technology, while BT is preparing to offer an internal service commercially, according to exhibitors at the first European Voice Biometrics Conference, held in London on 28 and 29 November.

Mark Pawleski, technical group leader at BT, revealed that the telco’s internal voice verification service, URU (You are You), is being readied as a commercial product to be offered to third-party organisations as a ready-made service called URU-Plus.

The aim of the service is to authenticate web and telephony users – usually by calling back their nominated mobile phone – and verifying their identity using voice verification and confirmation technology.

Even though several third-party firms are expected to use the service under their own brands – BT is already in discussions with a major bank, said Pawleski – only one central database and web interface will be required, thus cutting the cost of URU-Plus for clients.

Another exhibitor, VoiceVault, which describes itself as the world’s first and only biometric certification service provider, has licensed its technology to VoicePay. The latter is the latest brainchild of Nick Ogden, founder of WorldPay, the electronic payments firm.

Ogden is seeking to make VoicePay, based on his voice biometrics system of the same name, as well-known as WorldPay. VoicePay allows phone users to authenticate and irrevocably authorise a web or phone mail order or service transaction using the sound of their own voice.

The technology is ideally suited to a web retail transaction, said Vance Harris, VoiceVault’s chief technology officer, since it is fast and highly effective, authenticating users in real time as they speak their names and other vocal identifiers.

VoiceVault’s technology is also being trialled by the Allied Irish Bank (AIB), which is using the voice verification system as part of its automated password reset service for e-banking customers.

Brian Sweeney, service desk manager at AIB, said that voice biometrics is ideal for use as part of the bank’s interactive voice response system, which automatically handles tens of thousands of password resets – without human intervention – every week.

“The technology gives a low error rate in a real world situation, over the phone, and allows our operators to get on with other things than helping customers reset their passwords,” he explained.

New biometrics see right through you (January/February 2007 issue)

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