Indian private-sector lender ICICI Bank is planning to launch voice-recognition technology for biometric authentication to enhance its mobile banking service.
The service will enable customers to call and transfer funds to registered beneficiaries or pay bills without having to enter 16-digit card numbers or keying in PIN codes, reported The Times of India.
The voice authentication technology will be deployed in collaboration with Nuance Communications, a Massachusetts-based firm that created the technology behind Siri – Apple’s voice-recognition software.
The technology will use voice print, which is a hashed string of numbers and characters that represent how specific an individual’s voice rates on a host of characteristics being measured, and will be able to authenticate voices without requiring the customers to say specific words or speak any particular language.
ICICI Bank executive director Rajiv Sabharwal said: "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.
"To ensure safety, we are enabling this feature only on calls made from the customers’ registered phone."