Financial Institutions can win customer loyalty

Salmat Speech - Dec 19, 2008

Maidenhead, 19th December 2008: VeCommerce, a leading supplier of voice self-service and speaker verification solutions, supports the recent recommendations by the FSA(Financial Services Association) that by boosting investment in security measures to counteract rising fraud, financial institutions can retain existing customers, and attract new ones, during the recession.

EMEA Managing Director at VeCommerce Brett Feldon commented, "The FSA's concerns outlined in its agenda for fighting crime next year, draws attention to some key priorities that the banking community should ignore at their peril. Fraud is certainly still on the rise, especially of the on-line variety, but the internal threat is also greatly magnified with the arrival of more turbulent economic conditions."

He added, "In particular organisational change such as down-sizing or even redundancy will inevitably introduce more risk as personnel become more transient. This is a problem that is heightened still further within contact centres where employees often have access to sensitive customer data on a daily basis. This is a time when investment, rather than cut backs, from financial institutions on security measures could be opportune to protect their customers. Already we are working with some of the World’s largest financial institutions to deploy solutions based on voice biometrics that can shield sensitive customer details from internal staff and decrease the risk of external fraud. These strategies can achieve cost-savings through a reduction of fraud costs and added operational efficiencies but also create an enhanced customer experience, providing a clear competitive differentiator that will enable organisations to win and retain existing and new business."

VeCommerce's commissioned research earlier this year on the views of Australian consumers conducted by callcentres.net revealed that 52% of respondents believed answering a personal details or history question when confirming their identity over the phone meant their details were vulnerable to theft.

Biometric voice identification technology was the preferred personal identification process, with 42% of respondents ranking it as their first choice. Passwords and PINs were also popular with 41% and 33% of respondents ranking these methods as their second choice, respectively.

In addition, younger people prefer more high-tech methods of identification. By age group, 41% of respondents between 18 to 30 years of age (Generation Y) selected biometric voice identification as their preferred method.