Barclays rolls out voice-recognition security

Barclays is rolling out voice-recognition security to all its personal banking customers, eliminating the need for passwords and improving protection against fraud.

The UK-based bank began offering voice identification to Barclays Wealth customers but will now make it widely available to all personal banking customers who contact the bank by phone.

The service is not yet available to businesses or corporate clients.

The company says that if a customer forgets their password it takes on average two minutes to go through the necessary security questions.

“Barclays is constantly looking at ways to improve services for customers and make it easier for them to get things done quickly; this is the perfect example of technology that does exactly that,” says Steven Cooper, CEO of Personal Banking at Barclays.

“We’re committed to providing options so that our customers can choose how they want to bank with us and this is the latest iteration of that promise.”

Biometrics are playing an increasing role in fintech security as companies attempt to streamline process while maintaining high levels of security.

As well as banks like SHBC, Santander and Citigroup experimenting with voice recognition, payments services like Apple Pay and Alibaba’s Alipay are also bringing functions like thumb-print and selfie recognition, respectively, into the mainstream.

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