Citi launches Voice Biometrics Authentication for Asia Pacific customers

HONG KONG - Citibank will be the first financial services firm to deploy voice biometrics authentication across Asia Pacific. Voice biometrics authentication has been implemented in Taiwan - with Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore to follow in coming weeks.

VBA will be rolled out throughout the region in 2016 and 2017 to cover all 12 of Citi’s consumer banking markets in Asia Pacific that represent more than half of the bank’s 19 consumer markets globally.

Citi has around 15 million Consumer Banking customers in the region and the bank expects to have at least one million customers actively using voice biometrics authentication in the next 12 months. Within three years the bank expects the number of users to grow to three million.
Once available, customers who call into the bank’s contact centres will have their identity automatically verified within 15 seconds or less as they explain their reason for calling.
The voice biometrics authentication capability identifies customers through their voice print, which, similar to a fingerprint, is unique to each person. Citi clients can opt to enroll by recording their voices, which the bank will use to generate and store their voice prints for matching subsequent calls to Citibank. Each voice print will be uniquely tagged and cannot be reverse engineered once stored.
“The voice biometrics authentication capability underscores Citi’s focus on technology to better serve our customers. We know that remembering different PINs and answering multiple questions can make the process frustrating. With this new capability, we offer our customers a faster and more secure authentication for a better customer experience,” said Anand Selva, Asia Pacific Head for Consumer Banking, Citi. www.citigroup.com (ATI).