Would you trust Google to do your banking? NatWest will offer customers access to their accounts using smart speakers amid privacy fears
- The initial pilot will be tested with 500 people over a period of three months
- This will let customers ask eight questions as well as access over 15 banking tips
- One in five UK households now own a smart speaker, such as the Google Home
Banking on your voice could become the new way to check accounts if a NatWest trial using the Google Assistant proves to be right on the money.
The bank is launching a trial using the voice-powered virtual helper, allowing customers to ask the Google Home smart speaker for details such as their bank balance or recent spending.
Current capabilities are limited to accessing basic information but, if the trial is successful, could one day be expanded to allow people to pay bills by speaking to a Google device, NatWest claims.
Users will have to say a partial voice pin to confirm their identity when using the feature, which will inevitably raise privacy concerns given recent scandals regarding smart speakers, including Google Assistant.
The firm last month admitted that it gives workers access to some audio recordings from its Google Home and Android smart speakers.
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Innovation: NatWest is seeing whether banking with the spoken word could follow the same path to the mainstream as mobile banking, while also being useful for blind customers
HOW WILL IT WORK?
For security reasons, customers will setup their voice banking with their existing online banking password and PIN.
When accessing it, customers will then be asked to provide a partial voice PIN to confirm their identity.
Customers will be able to ask for commonly requested details such as their current balance and recent transactions and will be given a verbal response. On smartphones, the information will also appear on screen.
Where customers are unable to get an answer or need to speak to someone, a message will be sent to their phone with contact details of NatWest’s customer helpline.
The initial pilot – which will be tested with 500 people for three months – will respond verbally to eight questions as well as providing access to more than 15 banking tips, with the potential for more if the trial is successful.
‘We are exploring voice banking for the first time and think it could mark the beginning of a major change to how customers manage their finances in the same way mobile banking made a huge impact,’ said Kristen Bennie, head of NatWest’s Open Experience digital innovation centre.
‘This technology will make it easier for people to bank with us and could bring particular benefits to those who have a disability as voice banking eliminates the need for customers to use a screen or keyboard.
‘This is one of a number of services that the bank is aiming to develop this year that uses cutting edge, innovative technology to better serve our customers.’
According to a recent Ofcom report, one in five households in the UK now own a smart speaker, such as the Google Home, Amazon Echo or Apple HomePod – an increase of 7 per cent from 2018.
This equates to 12.6 million people owning a smart speaker, whilst 55 million own a smartphone.
Some predict that voice banking could follow the same path as mobile banking – moving from a niche way for people to manage their finances into a mainstream method to bank.
Georgina Bulkeley, Director of Strategy and Innovation NatWest, added: ‘We were the first bank in the UK to launch Touch ID for mobile, we delivered the UK’s first paperless mortgage and we’re leading the way on artificial intelligence with our digital assistant Cora.
‘This new voice service is the next step towards making banking even easier, opening up exciting opportunities to create truly effortless and seamless banking experiences.’
HOW IS GOOGLE ASSISTANT GETTING SMARTER?
At the search giant’s annual I/O developer conference, CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled a new technology called ‘Duplex’ that enables its Google Assistant to make phone calls in real-time with actual humans.
It can book a hair appointment and reserve a table for you at your favorite restaurant, among other things.
That’s on top of a slew of other tools that Google says can make it easier than ever for you to interact with your smart devices.
Duplex, which Pichai says the firm has been working on ‘for many years’, will be rolling out to a limited number of users for now.
Pichai showed off the new technology at the I/O conference, which kicked off on Tuesday in Mountain View, California and runs through Thursday.
In a demo, Google Assistant dials up a local hair salon to schedule an appointment.
First, a user asks Google Assistant to make them a hair appointment, which prompts Assistant to make the phone call.
It sounds like any other women talking, but one half of the conversation is being held by Google’s AI-infused digital assistant.
Google Assistant is able to work out a time and date for the appointment, even when the salon employee says there are no appointments available at the time the Assistant originally suggested.
Assistant then sends a notification to the user to let them know that an appointment has been scheduled.
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