DIGITAL BANKING Tips - Tip 22: Voice Biometrics

Providing digital financial services requires high level of security both on the client and bank side. At the same time, Digital Banking growth can only be achieved if the security and the functionality mixed in a right balance, otherwise security might become a business disabler. For this reason, Authentication of clients in a secure and easy way has been always a critical topic for Digital Banking. It started with User ID and Static Passwords, then followed by OTP (one time passwords) and PKI (public key infrastructure), finally biometrics arrived to the scene. Among all the other biometric solutions, Voice Biometrics (VB) has a special advantage: Convenience! It works with every mobile device (smart. dumb, expensive and cheap) plus even with land lines.  Plus minimum user participation required. So it could be a solid alternative to static passwords. 

Even if currently used very widely, static passwords and OTPs will have no future in authentication business - almost everyone agrees that the future of authentication will be Biometrics:  (something client is). Biometrics Authentication methods include (but not limited with): fingerprint, face recognition, retina & palm scan and voice print. There are also some challenges coming with Biometric authentication too, and two of them quite serious: first if it is stolen you cannot change it (unless you have a medical operation, it is a high cost just to change a password isn't it?!) and the second you need a device to facilitate biometric check. The first issue was solved by not storing the biometric id, rather using an algorithm to produce a hash value and stored it in the device or in a central server. For the second, you can use your mobile device or an independent reader connected to your PC. 

This is the short version of the post. 

Starting from Tip 2 to Tip 30 only short versions of my posts are available at Finextra. From Tip 31, full (long) versions of my posts can be read here.