Latest Call centres News: Finextra Research

Sloppy call centre security leaves customers vulnerable - Intervoice

Call centre employees in the UK will readily accept less stringent identity checks in place of forgotten security passwords, according to mystery shopper research conducted on behalf of US voice automation outfit Intervoice.

25 January 2006

News/Call centres

Customers want calls answered in the UK - Alliance and Leicester

The vast majority of customers still want their calls to be answered by staff in the UK and would not be happy to have their accounts serviced at overseas centres, according to research commissioned by British bank Alliance and Leicester (A&L).

23 January 2006

News/Call centres

S1 sells Edify business to Intervoice

S1 Corporation is selling its Edify business, which supplies interactive voice response (IVR) technology to financial firms, to Dallas-based Intervoice for $33.5 million in cash.

21 November 2005

News/Call centres

Abbey reviewing Bangalore call centre

UK bank Abbey is considering closing its call centre in Bangalore, India and bringing the 1000 jobs it originally offshored back to Britain, according to press reports.

27 October 2005

News/Call centres

UK Web banking customers still want the personal touch

Despite the growth in Internet banking, many UK consumers still want to contact their bank by phone, according to research published by The Henley Centre and BT which estimates that £4.6 million may be lost each year as a result of customers failing to get through when calling to enquire about new accounts, credit cards or loans.

21 October 2005

News/Call centres

ABN Amro calls on Avaya for global IP telephony project

ABN Amro has signed a five-year contract with Avaya to support the Dutch bank's migration to Internet Protocol (IP) telephony across 14 countries.

04 October 2005

News/Call centres

PassMark acquires voice authentication firm Vocent

Californian online security start-up PassMark Security has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Vocent Solutions, a provider of voiceprint authentication technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

24 August 2005

News/Call centres

First direct launches online chat service

HSBC's direct banking subsidiary first direct has launched an online chat facility that allows prospective customers to communicate with bank staff in real time over the Internet.

19 August 2005

News/Call centres

Indian trade association to probe Australian customer data theft

India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) says it will investigate recent claims that undercover reporters were able to buy confidential customer data from call centre workers in the country.

17 August 2005

News/Call centres

Malaysia's EON Bank signs for HP's IP telephony system

Malaysia's EON Bank Group has contracted with Hewlett Packard for the supply and implementation of an IP-based telephony system at its customer call centre.

09 August 2005

News/Call centres

US call centre workers sue HSBC for alleged labour law violations

Two former US call centre workers have filed a lawsuit against HSBC alleging that the bank violated federal and state labour laws by not paying them overtime.

21 July 2005

News/Call centres

ING Direct implements Avaya call centre technology

ING Direct, the Internet and phone banking arm of Dutch bank ING, has implemented an IP telephony system supplied by Avaya at its call centre in Cardiff.

06 July 2005

News/Call centres

UK police probe Indian call centre fraud

City of London police are investigating allegations that a call centre worker in India sold the bank account details of 1000 UK customers to an undercover reporter, raising fresh fears about the security of customer data at offshore centres.

23 June 2005

News/Call centres

Commonwealth Bank extends TNZ voice and call services contract

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has signed a new three year contract with Telecom New Zealand (TNZ) for the provision of voice and contact centre services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

02 June 2005

News/Call centres

Barclays answers online customer queries with Transversal AI technology

The UK's Barclays Bank is implementing artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Cambridge-based Transversal to provide its Web banking customers with automatic answers to online queries.

10 May 2005

News/Call centres

Indian call centre workers arrested for Citibank fraud

Three former employees of Indian BPO firm MphasiS have been arrested for allegedly siphoning off $300,000 from Citibank customers after stealing account details while working at an offshore call centre in India.

08 April 2005

News/Call centres

Banks failing to connect with customers via the branch

US banks are missing a significant opportunity to increase sales because of ineffective marketing at branches and call centres says Accenture

06 April 2005

News/Call centres

AWD rolls out S1 call centre technology

German independent financial advisor AWD has implemented S1 Corporation's newly-launched call centre application at its customer services centre in Hanover.

05 April 2005

News/Call centres

Majority of UK consumers unhappy about offshore call centres

Over half of UK consumers are unhappy about banks outsourcing customer contact centres to cheap offshore locations, according to research conducted by Fujitsu Services.

22 March 2005

News/Call centres

Bank of Ireland to invest EUR40m in technology; confirms 2100 job cuts

The Bank of Ireland (BoI) is to spend EUR40 million on consolidating technology and improving automation across the enterprise over the next four years under a EUR120 million cost reduction programme.

22 March 2005