Security backed by science.
UK-based bank company Santander will be making use of biometric technology in order to improve security within its upcoming telephone banking service.
More specifically, it will use a combination of Voice ID from Nuance Communications Inc and phone ID authentication to prevent identity fraud – one of the biggest and most costly problems in the finance industry. In fact, in 2016, the UK lost an average of £2.1 million per day due to financial fraud, which totals to about £767 million per year. In 2018, this number increased even more, with fraudsters managing to steal a total of £1.2 billion.
According to a report on Bloomberg on Friday, the new Voice ID from Nuance makes it much easier for Santander customers to verify their identities when utilizing the bank’s phone service. The goal is to completely remove the use of PINs altogether and replace them with the human voice, which apparently has over 100 voice characteristics that can be used to authenticate the caller’s identity.
“We see PINs and passwords continuing to fail and hacks and breaches climbing. With that, more and more organizations are deploying biometrics to enable a simpler and safer way for customers to validate their identities and access services,” general manager of Nuance Enterprise Brett Beranek says. “We are proud to see Santander leveraging Nuance technology to safeguard financial and personal information in today’s digital society.”
