Bank of Ireland Makes Big Bet on Voice Authentication

The Bank of Ireland has announced plans to spend €34 million overhauling its call center operations, with a central component being the implementation of voice biometrics for customer authentication.

It has been an increasingly common practice over the past several years, with financial institutions around the world looking to improve both customer service and operational efficiency through the use of voice recognition. Founded in 1783, the Bank of Ireland is one of the oldest and largest banks in the country, and its plans to deploy the tech are therefore particularly symbolic.

Headquartered in Dublin, the bank provides a wide range of financial services including deposits, loans, mortgages, and wealth management, both domestically and internationally. It holds significant importance in the Irish financial system and has a strong presence in the UK. The Bank of Ireland is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.

“We receive more than 11,000 calls on average each day and when customers call us they want speed, expertise and security,” explained Bank of Ireland Retail CEO Susan Russell. “This investment equips colleagues with the latest technology to provide better and faster resolution of calls, and colleagues will now have a ‘single view’ of the customer at the touch of a button providing them with instant access to all their information without having to talk to another part of the bank. This investment will make things faster and better for customers and for colleagues.”

All that having been said, this is also a risky time to be leaning into voice biometrics for authentication, given developments in generative AI. Last month, OpenAI revealed its “Voice Generation” model, which purportedly can clone a voice from just 15 seconds of speech. Concerned about how the tool might be misused, OpenAI has held back on a public release, and the company openly suggested that banks reconsider their use of voice-based authentication systems.

Source: FinExtra

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May 1, 2024 – by Alex Perala

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