Nuance Provides Gatekeeper Security for Bank Australia

Bank Australia is now using Nuance’s voice biometrics technology to verify the identities of its customers. The financial institution has integrated the Nuance Gatekeeper platform into its own VoiceID service to process calls more quickly at its contact center.

Nuance Gatekeeper authenticates users with secure voice biometrics, thereby negating the need for a password or a security question. The company noted that those kinds of knowledge-based identifiers are vulnerable to cybercriminals, since they can be exposed in a data breach or obtained through social engineering.

Gatekeeper, on the other hand, analyzes vocal characteristics like pronunciation and pitch to create a unique (and encrypted) voiceprint for each customer. That template can then be used to authenticate the customer the next time they make a call to Bank Australia.

The voice authentication utility is an opt-in feature. Bank Australia started trialing Nuance Gatekeeper in December, and is moving forward with a full launch based on that initial success.

“Our team will save time usually spent on repetitive authentication processes to enable greater focus on customer needs without compromising on security,” said Bank Australia COO Brad Jordon. “We take more than 400,000 calls per year, so we look forward to improving customer experience and adding this extra layer of security to their accounts.”

“Consumers are banking online more than ever before and the fraud threat is increasing as a result,” added Nuance VP and GM Brett Beranek. “We are proud to partner with Bank Australia to innovate their contact center, offering their customers a simpler and more secure way to access their banking services.”

Bank Australia is not the only bank currently taking advantage of the award-winning Nuance Gatekeeper platform. National Australia Bank adopted the solution back in May, while the Industrial Bank of Korea followed in December. Both institutions were recent additions to a client roster that already included Allied Irish Banks and Santander. 

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March 16, 2021 – by Eric Weiss