HSBC and its online banking subsidiary first direct are launching a new voice- and touch-based sign-on options. Noting that it is “the largest planned roll out of biometric security technology in the UK,” Francesca McDonagh, head of retail banking and wealth management, noted that the new service will make it quicker and easier for customers to carry on banking activities while using “the body” as “the most secure form of password technology.”

The IAuth (Intelligent Authentication) train has clearly left the station and banks are playing a major role. When Opus Research issued the first Voice Biometrics Census in November 2014, Financial Services companies already accounted for 41% of implementations and 22% of enrolled individuals. At the time, we estimated the number of enrolled voiceprints to be “over 56 million.” Since that time, banking and financial services giants, including Barclays, Wells Fargo, ManuLife, Royal Bank of Canada and India’s ICICI Bank have introduced new authentication services, each with the potential to bring over 10 million new enrollees into the fold. That’s a formula for rapid growth.

HSBC will start by offering the service to customers of first direct, its telephone and online banking subsidiary. In that respect, it is launching a few weeks ahead of Atom Bank, another direct banking challenger that has made its Intelligent Authentication intentions well known. HSBC plans to make the feature available to up to 15 million banking customers in short order.

Categories: Intelligent Authentication, Articles

Tags: biometrics, IntelligentAuthentication, HSBC, Voice biometrics