HSBC has announced it will boost its mobile banking security by enabling more than 15 million customers to access accounts online using either voice or fingerprint recognition.
The move is aimed at introducing a quicker, easier and more secure way for customers to access their bank accounts. The system will be set out for HSBC’s first customers of its First Direct Internet and phone banking division over the next few weeks.
Industry experts believe this is a leap forward for biometrics technology being used in the UK banking industry.
HSBC customers will have access to fingerprint authentication services using the fingerprint readers built into Apple’s iPhones in combination with HSBC’s mobile banking app.
The bank is also using Nuance Communications’ voice recognition technology, a piece of technology that uses more than 100 unique identifiers to recognise a speaker.
HSBC UK’s head of retail banking and wealth management, Francesca McDonagh, said: “This is the largest planned roll-out of voice biometric security technology in the UK.”
According to a YouGov poll commissioned by HSBC more than one-third of UK consumers use the same password across most of their online accounts and more than half rarely update their passwords.
Many financial institutions have investigated the possibility of using biometrics for authentication as most see this as the best replacement for passwords.