“Hey Siri, what’s my bank balance?”
ING customers can now check their Orange Everyday account balance by asking their Apple smartphone.
ING is the latest bank to dabble with voice biometric technology, launching a new capability that allows customers with an Apple smartphone to ask virtual assistant Siri for an update on their bank balance. Rather than logging into their mobile banking app, customers with a compatible device can simply ask Apple's assistant, "Hey Siri, what's my bank balance?" to get an update on their Orange Everyday transaction account.
While other financial institutions have also launched voice biometrics technologies, ING is the first Australian bank to launch Siri voice authorisation. Customers won't even need to enter their PIN in order to check their balance with Siri, but can simply ask their phone,"Hey Siri, what's my bank balance" or "How much do I have in my Orange everyday account?" Customers can also ask the virtual assistant more specific questions, like "How much do I have in my holiday savings account?" Customers can check the balance of any ING account and, for security and privacy, it will display on the screen the balances of the accounts that the customer has asked for.
At the moment the feature only allows customers to check their ING account balance, but ING is planning to extend the technology to enable users to make transactions and payments via voice authorisation. Research commissioned by ING found one in five customers are using virtual voice assistants daily, and 69% said they'd be likely to use this technology to perform daily banking transactions.
Head of digital innovation at ING Chris Barwick said, "This latest development with Siri marks a major milestone in Australian consumer banking as it brings us one huge leap closer to making voice activated transactional banking a reality. In the future we want our customers to be able to use Siri for banking transactions such as transferring funds between accounts or making bill payments."
This is already a reality in Australia. In September 2017, ANZ was the first Australian bank to launch voice authentication technology for mobile, allowing customers to complete mobile transactions using their voice. The launch of the technology followed a successful pilot program back in April 2017 and allows ANZ customers to authorise transactions over $1000 without logging into their mobile banking app.
Earlier last year Citi launched its voice biometrics verification service, allowing customers to verify their identity with their voice when they call through to the customer care team with a question.
To take advantage of the new capability, ING customers should ensure they have the latest version of iOS downloaded, as well as the latest version of ING's mobile banking app.
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