National Australia Bank (NAB) has introduced biometric voice verification for its telephone banking customers.
Following an internal pilot involving 2000 branch staff in May, the speech security function is now available to NAB's 3.3 million personal banking customers.
Customers calling the bank's contact centre can now register their voice pattern, which NAB says is harder to steal than a password or PIN, improving authentication.
In addition, the system is more convenient for customers because it does not require them to remember passwords and PINs.
Warren Shaw, executive general manager, nabretail, NAB Personal Banking, says: "With identity theft related fraud increasingly moving to the phone channel, the use of voice biometrics enables the effective identification, authentication and verification of customers, offering an extra layer of protection."