ING Bank has introduced a service allowing its Romanian users to access their accounts via voice recognition technology. The bank developed the program working with the company behind iPhone's famous voice control Siri.

ING is the first in Romania to use such technology, developing its  "virtual private bank assistant" within a project called Voice Biometrics.

Developed together with a company called Nuance Communications, which created the Siri voice service on Apple phones, the new service from ING Bank allows users to get information from the virtual assistant, eliminating the call center waiting time. Meanwhile, call center operators gain time to deal with complex requests, thus improving the efficiency of the call center, according to the bank.

The system will only be available to users in Romania starting December, and for 2014, ING Bank Romania expects 50,000 people to use the voice biometrics service. The bank's representatives highlighted that voice recognition is the safest way to encrypt a system, and say their new system will be impossible to break.

A recent study by the bank showed that the majority of the users are frustrated by the classical authentication system – which involves using one's personal identification number, the Romanian CNP.

Via the new service, the client will get information about their account balance, recent transactions, and also unlock their internet banking accounts, among other functions.

Apple's Siri is an application for the iPhone which allows the user to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls. The aplication understands what the user says or asks, and uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of web services.

editor@romania-insider.com