The identity verification process for banks is a process virtually everyone would love to do away with. It is tolerated because it is a necessary evil, but most people would love to find an alternative solution that is much simpler and more effective. Because let's face it, anyone can steal your information and pretend to be you, and the call representative asking you what your mother's maiden name is will not be the wiser. That is why many banks as well as call centers are deploying voice biometrics to verify the identity of their customers. Nice Systems, an Isreali based company that provides both structured and unstructured big data solutions to deliver real time insights, has launched a new real-time authentication solution for financial institutions by analyzing the customer's voice.
The company uses an algorithm to identify the customer's voice by automatically comparing the voice prints that have been entered into a database. Once a voice has been archived, the system creates a unique thumbprint that can be compared to individual calls.
Biometrics security authentication is increasingly becoming the preferred technology because traditional methods can easily be overcome. The old verification system only involved answering questions that are in the database. Unfortunately these databases can be hacked, and the information can be used by criminals to wipe your account clean and carry out additional crimes.
According to Nice Systems, voice biometrics uses more than 50 physical and behavioral factors, including pronunciation, emphasis, speech rate, accent, unique physical traits of the vocal tract and more, which makes it much more effective than answering a simple security question.
Some of the other features of the system are:
- A patent-pending enrollment technology that leverages NICE interaction recording to create voiceprints for a large number of customers
- Context, telephony and transaction analytics that automatically analyzes IVR events, caller geo-location, automatic number identification (ANI) matching and other data
- Automatic Decisioning draws on insights from analytics to verify identity and generate dynamic security questions as the call unfolds.
The platform also provides multiple solutions to guide call center agents with real-time assistance for customer authentication. The process guides agents in determining whether the caller has been accurately identified, and if they are not it continues with dynamic security questions.
"Most voice-based projects have failed because they put a burden on the customer to set up their voice-enabled profiles in advance – an additional time-consuming task. With NICE’s Seamless Passive Enrollment, if a customer has called before, they can be automatically authenticated using their voice the very next time they call," said Yochai Rozenblat, President of the NICE Enterprise Group.
Edited by Maurice Nagle