Citibank Thailand introduces voice biometrics authentication system

The new authentication system will be used to verify the identity of customers via their voice when they get through to CitiPhone Banking officers.
When customers gain more confidence as a result of using voice biometrics in their dealings with Citibank, they will undertake more financial transactions via the bank, while many people who are not yet customers will consider applying for its products and services due to the high-tech verification system, said Vira-anong Chiranakhorn Phutrakul, consumer business manager at Citibank Thailand.
 Around 20-30 per cent of the bank’s 1.6 million customers are expected to apply to use the voice-biometrics service, she added.
Thailand is the eighth market where US-based Citibank has introduced voice-biometrics authentication. 
Vira-anong said that using voice biometrics in Thailand might not, however, be taken up as quickly as it had been by people in the US or Australia.
Citibank Thailand has 150 CitiPhone banking officers, who each spend more than a minute to authenticate a customer’s identity, whereas the use of voice biometrics means verification takes only 15 seconds.
Officers can therefore service more customers, and the number of financial transactions should increase as well, she said.
CitiPhone Banking officers facilitate an average of 200,000 transactions per month under the current system.
However, for some higher-risk financial transactions, such as |making a change in a customer’s demographic data, Citibank Thailand’s clients will still be asked additional security questions, she stressed. 
Voice-biometrics technology is highly intelligent, and even if the account owner speaks in a different language from that recorded during the registration phase, the customer can still be securely authenticated – saving an average of 45 seconds on every call. 
Voice authentication also recognises when someone is trying to imitate the voice of a customer, and immediately denies access to any information or services, the consumer business manager said.
At the time of registration for Citi’s voice-biometrics service, customers will be required to call CitiPhone Banking at 1588 and agree to the terms and conditions of use. 
The system will then store the customer’s voice in the form of a unique voiceprint. 
Customers will also be asked personal data questions for further identity verification purposes that may be required in the future. 
Once registration is complete, a text or e-mail notification will be sent within two to four hours, after which customers can start to use the voice-biometrics service via its CitiPhone Banking officers. 
“Vocal-recognition technology is another approach to preventing financial crime and the theft of customers’ financial information. However, the voice-biometrics system remains a voluntary choice for our customers. If the customer does not want to use the service, they don’t have to. The bank continues to offer traditional safety measures by authentication through security questions, personal telephone PIN or One Time Password,” Vira-anong explained.
Citibank expects to have at least a million customers in Asia-Pacific actively using voice-biometrics authentication in the next 12 months, Darren Buckley, country head and Citibank country officer, added.
The bank last September successfully launched fingerprint identity-verification technology for customers carrying out transactions via its Mobile Banking application and, following approval from the Bank of Thailand, Citibank is now the first bank in the Kingdom to offer authentication via voice biometrics.