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Santander announced that it plans to offer telephone banking customers the option to verify their identity via phone ID and biometric voice ID technology, according to Fintech Finance.
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This will eliminate the need for customers to type in lengthy personal ID and security numbers when completing phone authentication. Additionally, Santander is introducing natural language processing to its telephone banking service, which means customers can state a question and the tech will redirect them to the relevant team within the bank.
Here’s what it means: Santander is making its phone banking features more robust and secure, but consumer demand for such features might not be as high as it once was.
- Biometrics can help Santander combat phone verification fraud. During the enrollment process for the new feature, customers repeat a short phrase several times, allowing the technology to develop a unique voice print. When the customer calls in the future, they will repeat the same sentence and the tech will compare it with the previous recording. Notably, the tech is able to identify if someone is playing a recording of the sentence, which will help prevent fraud. Hence, this feature could make telephone banking more secure than when customers had to type in a series of numbers to verify their identity, which could easily be stolen and used by fraudsters.
- But this announcement comes at a time when other banks are reducing phone banking capabilities.Nationwide, for example, terminated a telephone banking feature that allowed customers to pay bills via the phone in October last year, as fewer than 2,000 customers made such transactions. However, making the login process more efficient and secure might help Santander increase customer satisfaction on the phone banking front.
The bigger picture: This is just the latest in Santander’s digital push — and its holistic approach to digitization could help it to satisfy a diverse user base.
Santander is investing in new technologies all-round, making sure all aspects of the bank are getting up to speed.In February, it was announced that Santander reached a $700 million five-year global technology agreement with IBM to deepen its business transformation efforts.
Additionally, earlier this month, the banking giant introduced fraud warnings for customers, forcing them to specify the reason for certain transactions. And while telephone banking may be on the decline, it’s important to not leave out customers who depend on other potentially less popular channels for banking. Hence, by enhancing all parts of its business, Santander can ensure all of its customers receive a satisfying experience.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Lea Nonninger)