Take my word for it

Well, there’s one way to talk to your bank, writes

“All customers have to do is to ask what is their balance or ‘ how much do I have in my Orange Everyday ( transaction) account?’,’’ he said. REQUESTING a bank balance The newest feature from “It will display on from your smartphone’s virtual ING – which has more than 1.2 the screen the assistant is the newest way million customers nationally – balances of the customers can check their is the first of many more voiceaccounts that financial status. activation services set to the customer

Using voice biometrics, become available to customers. has asked financial institution for.” ING has All the hard work is done by launched the latest technoa virtual assistant and it’s New logical advance for smartphone expected to extend to research consumers, allowing iOS Apple customers being able to make compiled by device users to converse with bank transfers or bill payments. Nielsen on their bank in seconds. ING’s head of digital behalf of ING

It doesn’t even require innovation Chris Barwick said found about one in customers to enter a PIN or log the technology is a milestone as five customers are now into the banking app; all they it brings consumers closer to using voice assistants such as have to do is ask Siri: “what’s my making voice- activated Siri at least once a day. bank balance?” transactional banking a reality. And a majority of ING

Sophie Elsworth

customers ( 69 per cent) said they would be likely to use these types of voice- activated services to perform their daily banking tasks as they become available. Strategic relations firm RFi’s lead consultant Alex Boorman said biometrics was becoming more popular among financial institutions as customers demand these advanced types of technology. “There’s a move to use various different types of biometrics in financial services from fingerprints, to voice activation, to iris scans,’’ he said.

“We are seeing more customers logging into apps using fingerprints and it’s about making it easy for customers to access their banking.”

Voice biometrics is very advanced and doesn’t just take in a person’s voice, it also takes in the way they speak, Mr Boorman said.

Security- wise, customers first have to go into the bank’s latest app, have the newest iOS version on their smartphone and approve the accounts they would like included on their balance check before they can use the voice activation service.