{"id":62473,"date":"2015-10-05T10:09:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T14:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=62473"},"modified":"2016-04-02T23:35:17","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T03:35:17","slug":"royal-bank-implements-technology-that-can-identify-a-client-based-on-their-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/05\/royal-bank-implements-technology-that-can-identify-a-client-based-on-their-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Bank implements technology that can identify a client based on their voice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Montreal head office of the Royal Bank of Canada (Photo from Wikipedia\/Henrickso<\/a>n)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2013 Phone passwords and security questions could soon become obsolete as financial institutions race to implement technology that can verify a client\u2019s identity based on the characteristics of their voice.<\/p>\n

After a successful pilot project last summer, Royal Bank (RBC) is rolling out \u201cvoice biometrics\u201d technology that can identify clients who phone the bank\u2019s call centres in a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n

Customers will have to opt in to the service, which is being phased in over a three-month period and has been created by tech firm Nuance Communications.<\/p>\n

RBC says it is the first Canadian company to implement technology that can create and identify a client’s \u201cvoiceprint,\u201d which consists of more than 100 different characteristics such as the client\u2019s pitch and accent, in the course of a regular conversation.<\/p>\n

Manulife implemented similar technology for its banking clients and its retail advisers back in September, although users have to say a predetermined phrase \u2013 \u201cAt Manulife, my voice is my password\u201d \u2013 in order for their voices to be verified.<\/p>\n

In addition to speeding up the customer service process \u2013 agents can immediately begin addressing a client\u2019s needs rather than peppering them with a series of security questions \u2013 proponents of the technology say it will also boost security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to pick up a piece of mail and look at someone\u2019s confidential information, but you can\u2019t steal a voice,\u201d said Joanna Lohrenz, vice president of contact centres and customer experience at Manulife.<\/p>\n

Financial institutions have been striving to innovate lately in response to changing customer expectations and pressure from more agile, tech-savvy startups that threaten to snatch some of their market share.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year CIBC (CM) opened up an innovation lab in the financial tech cluster at Toronto\u2019s Mars Discovery District, a space dedicated to housing early-stage startups and other tech innovators including Airbnb, Etsy and Facebook.<\/p>\n

The banks have been criticized for being slow to implement new technologies. CIBC hopes to improve its agility by allowing select employees to work outside of the constraints of the traditional banking environment, says David Williamson, the head of CIBC’s retail and business banking division.<\/p>\n

At CIBC\u2019s Mars lab, co-op students and other staff undertake sprints \u2013 \u201cfuelled by pizza and Xbox\u201d \u2013 that produce completed concepts in just a few weeks, Williamson said. For example, the concept for CIBC\u2019s Apple Watch app was developed in around six weeks, Williamson said.<\/p>\n

The bank has been using the space to experiment with a variety of new technologies, including voice authentication similar to Apple\u2019s Siri, that would allow customers to use their voices not only to access their accounts but also to perform a variety of tasks such as pay bills, transfer money and even seek advice about budgeting.<\/p>\n

However, Williamson said it\u2019s important to determine whether customers are ready for the technology before the bank moves forward. CIBC is currently conducting research to determine how much appetite clients have for voice-authenticated banking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all about the client,\u201d said Williamson. \u201cWe need to put out things that make banking better for them… if they think it\u2019s creepy, they won\u2019t adopt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Phone passwords and security questions could soon become obsolete as financial institutions race to implement technology that can …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":62474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-62473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-original","mauthors-alexandra-posadzki","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}