ICICI Bank plans to deploy voice biometric authentication developed by Nuance to enable customers to call and transfer funds to registered beneficiaries or pay bills without having to enter card numbers or keying in PIN codes. The biometric authentication engine will use voice samples taken from customers in ‘just 10 seconds’ when they call the bank, reports the Times of India. The bank’s servers will identify the users account details and match it with its database.
In the future voice data will also be analysed to identify if callers are agitated, in a hurry or irritated, to avoid cross-sell pitches. Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, said that the technology will boost financial inclusion as the process of authentication can be done seamlessly without requiring the caller to speak specific words in any particular language. “The software uses 100 parameters for matching sound samples. To collect the sample, the servers need to record only 35 seconds of voice during any conversation. Besides authentication, the software will help the bank in analytics as it will immediately inform the operator about the state of mind of the caller,” said Sabharwal. “If we were to use other biometrics like fingerprint or iris, we would need to deploy scanners. In the case of voice recognition, any call from a basic phone to the call centre is good enough. Since the voice samples and servers are in the call centre, there is no requirement for data connectivity,” he added
