British banking major Barclays has introduced a new service to enable the customers with hearing difficulties carry out telephone banking.

All the hearing-impaired or hard of hearing customers can now opt to have a lipspeaker interpret their telephone conversations with the bank.

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The system will utilise customer system markers and nominated phone numbers to allow only authorised calls.

All conversations with the bank will be interpreted by a lipspeaker to ensure proper communication, enabling the deaf customers to conduct transactions.

The new service is developed following a direct customer feedback and is aimed at ensuring accessibility of telephone banking services to all.

Barclays UK head of customer and client accessibility Kathryn Townsend said: “Barclays puts accessibility at the heart of what we do, and places a lot of importance on getting this right for customers.

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“The introduction of this new service for Deaf and hard of hearing customers provides another example of where we have listened to our customers, and made changes based on their feedback.”

To utilise the service, the customers are required to inform Barclays and provide a nominated mobile number for telephone banking. Subsequently, a unique marker will be attached to their profile.

The service will be available between 8am and 9pm throughout the year, the bank said in its press statement.

Action on Hearing Loss director of policy and campaigns Roger Wicks said: “This new service being implemented by Barclays is a great example to other organisations on the importance of accessibility.

“People with deafness and hearing loss frequently don’t enjoy equal or convenient access to banking services, so services like this are a hugely welcome addition.”