Nuance Gatekeeper voice biometrics strengthen security for National Australia Bank

Nuance Communications, Inc. announced that National Australia Bank (NAB), one of Australia's major banks, is leveraging an advanced biometrics solution for authenticating customers and enabling fraud detection, Nuance Gatekeeper, to improve the customer experience and strengthen the bank's security standards around customers' authentication processes.

Nuance biometrics and security solution powers NAB's VoiceID service that authenticates NAB customers' voices in seconds, helping to prevent fraudsters from accessing bank accounts using a customer's credentials or information. NAB's users choosing this authentication process will record their unique voiceprint simply by talking to a NAB banker on the phone.

Capture distinct characteristics

We are pleased to partner with Nuance to provide customers with secure ways to go about their banking"

While the customer is speaking, the underlying technology will identify more than a thousand behavioural and physical vocal traits such as pronunciation, tone and pattern, and capture the distinct characteristics in their voice to create a unique voiceprint. The encrypted voiceprint will be securely stored and used to easily identify a customer the next time that individual calls in.

"We are pleased to partner with Nuance to provide customers with simple, fast and secure ways to go about their banking. We now have around 120,000 customers enrolled since VoiceID went live in November 2019 and we are targeting 250,000 customer enrollments by the end of 2020."

Pattern of speech

"As the first major Australian bank to offer VoiceID in its contact centre, this technology is helping us improve the experience our customers have when they call by spending less time on the authentication process and more time helping them with their needs," said Paula Constant, Executive General Manager Consumer Direct at NAB.

With so many different characteristics, the human voice provides one of the safest ways to verify callers' identities. Nuance Gatekeeper analyses more than 1,000 characteristics of a voice and also uses its intelligent detectors to cross check an individual's device, geolocation and pattern of speech, while certifying it is a real person and not a recording or synthetic creation.

Knowledge-based passwords

Biometrics removes the need for knowledge-based passwords and security questions that hackers can easily steal or guess, bringing NAB customers higher security standards and convenience by focusing on who they are versus what they know.

Biometrics offer a win-win solution, with a simpler way for consumers to access sensitive services"

"With eleven online accounts and nine different passwords per person on average, passwords are becoming overwhelming for consumers to manage. Biometrics offer a win-win solution, with a simpler way for consumers to access sensitive services like banking, and a secure alternative for businesses," said Brett Beranek, General Manager, Security Business, Nuance Enterprise. "We are proud to see NAB leveraging Nuance Gatekeeper to bring their customers more convenience while securing financial and personal information in today's digital society."

Global telecommunications companies

Nuance technology is being implemented by more than half of the world's largest financial institutions today, and 8 of the 10 largest global telecommunications companies. NAB joins the growing list of leading enterprises successfully leveraging Nuance's biometric solutions including the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), HSBC, RBS, TalkTalk, Vodafone Turkey and Deutsche Telekom.

Over 500 million consumers make more than 8 billion successful authentications yearly and Nuance biometrics has already prevented over $2 billion worth of customers' money from getting into the wrong hands. Nuance biometrics solution Gatekeeper also was recently recognised with the GLOMO Award.