R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, APR 12
With an aim to offer fool-proof log-in facility to customers and pre-empt the cybercriminals, the tech-savvy City Union Bank (CUB) on Wednesday launched the country’s first Voice Biometric for its All-in-One Mobile Banking Applications in Chennai.
- The technology was developed by Chennai-based start-up Kaizen secure Voiz Pvt Ltd under the guidance of 5G Use Case Lab of Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), an RBI established institution focussed on research in banking technologies: Dr N Kamakodi, MD & CEO, CUB
- The bank is rolling out this Voice Biometrics Authentication in our All-in-One Mobile Banking app as one more feature of Login to customers
- This technology was showcased at the IDRBT Stall in India Mobile Congress held Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Oct 1, 2022, where the Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 5G services.
This is yet another feather in the cap of CUB, as the bank has always fire in its belly to stay ahead in introducing technology advancements in the banking industry.
Launching the Voice Biometric for Mobile Banking, Dr N Kamakodi, MD & CEO, CUB, said “This will be another milestone in terms of customer service and ensuring safe banking. We have been the first in Indian Banking Industry on so many technology innovative implementations. In continuation of our technological innovation, we got an opportunity to be part of the 5G Innovation Hub initiated by IDRBT along with Department of Telecommunications and Department of Financial Services. We partnered with Kaizen Voiz in this innovation and now we are introducing Voice biometric authentication for our Mobile Banking app.’’
- CUB implemented ROBOT ‘CUB Lakshmi’ first in Indian Banking Industry to serve our customers.
- First to implement multi lingual Chatbot as part of our Mobile Banking app.
- Introduced Wearable debit cards first in the form of Key Chain and Wrist watch which are very handy to make payments at PoS terminals using Near Field Communication. CUB first bank to launch this through wearables.
- First to launch the UPI123Pay, the UPI application for rural penetration of digital payments basic phone users as part of Financial Inclusion initiative.
- CUB was the first to introduce Interoperable Cardless Cash Withdrawal (ICCW) for withdrawal of cash from ATMs without a card and using the QR code.
- CUB is one among few selected banks as part of RBI Innovation Hub for digitizing 15G/15H submission by customers through WhatsApp and ATM.
He further said, “Of all the three authentication systems such as ‘What you know’, ‘What you have’ and ‘What you are’, the third one is the most authentic way as it cannot be passed on or misused. Of the Biometric ‘what you are’ authentication techniques, voice biometric is one among them.’’
Dr Kamakodi said, “We are authenticating customer login using User ID and password in Net banking and using Customer ID and MPIN with device binding for Mobile banking. In addition, Face ID/Finger Print Biometric based authentication is also provided in Mobile banking login. Users across the globe are moving away from PIN-based systems to solutions that offer them convenient and fast authentication methods. Biometrics solutions such as Voice, Iris, and fingerprint authentication systems lead the trend. In continuation to the seamless and secure login process, now we have introduced “Voice Biometric” – based authentication facility for customers to login to our Mobile banking app, which will be made available for our Net banking also which is under testing.’’
He said that the bank is rolling out this Voice Biometrics Authentication in our All-in-One Mobile Banking app as one more feature of Login to our Customers. The existing authentication methods like, User ID/PIN, face ID, Finger print authentications will remain. This is one more way of authentication. Customers can choose any one of these techniques.
Dr Kamakodi added that “This is an Atmanirbhar Solution developed by partnering with M/s Kaizen Voiz and this has undergone several levels of testing like mimicking, Recorded voice etc. and I am sure this will be another safest method of authentication by our customers. The CUG version of this facility was showcased in IDRBT Stall in India Mobile Congress held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on 01.10.2022, wherein our Hon’ble Prime Minister launched 5G. We are proud to announce that we are the first Bank in India to offer this facility to the Banking customers.’
How to avail Voice KYC
Dr Kamakodi said the customers who wish to avail this facility need to do a one-time registration by registering their voice for about 20 seconds. System will prompt to agree to the terms and customers will also receive an SMS and email regarding confirmation. Customers will have the option to enable the voice bio-metric and also they can de-register this option any time. 5G network is preferred to use this facility for better customer experience. The main criteria used in validating the voice are the accent of the voice and speed of the voice and we are sure that customers will be thrilled to use this method of authentication which is very simple in terms of enrolment, improved security and no need to remember pin. This method is in compliance with RBI guidelines, he added.
Addressing at the launch, S Rengarajan, Senior Domain Expert, IDRBT said that the technology developed by Kaizan Voice was piloted at the Telangana Grameena Bank on trial basis. On the basis of inputs received from over 50 users, several modifications were done for about six months.
Vivek Kumar, Director & Co Founder, Kaizen Secure Voiz Pvt Ltd also spoke and explained in detail on the fool-proof system of the technology developed and customised for City Union Bank.
S Sudhakar, Deputy Director General, DoT, Vijay Krishnamoorthy, Director Technology, DoT, S Rengarajan, Senior Domain Expert, IDRBT and V A Prashanth, Senior Domain Expert, IDRBT were also present.
R K Pathak, Deputy Director General, DoT, Surjeth Karthikeyan, Deputy Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Mayank, Scientist & Joint Director, Digital Payment Division Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Dr V N Sastry, Professor & Head, 5 Use Case Lab of IDRBT joined the launch event virtually.
