Chase tries voice
Chase Manhattan Bank recently decided to use voice verification for customer identification following a review of several types of biometrics. Elizabeth Boyle, who led the trials and is now an independent consultant, said Chase's research found 95% of consumers would accept voice verification, compared with 80% accepting fingerprinting.

Another reason it chose voice over fingerprints and signatures was that voice works remotely (by phone) whereas special readers would need to be installed in consumer's homes for the others. (FingerScan said all vendors are moving in this direction, adding that it is in talks with the Central Bank of Asia regarding a home banking application for the bank's preferred customers.)

Chase conducted the first of two New York branch pilots at the end of 1995. The second concluded last September. Following the analysis of extensive follow-up research and in conjunction with the roll-out of a new teller system, Chase will implement voice verification around the end of the year, Boyle said.

One reason for waiting for the new teller system is that it can be rigged to pull the customer's file from the database before they get to the teller, she explained. The procedure will be as follows. The customer records a standard phrase. The recording is made either in the branch or from home, using auto cues. When he comes into the branch, he goes to a podium housing a modified telephone. He swipes his bank card, says the phrase, and, upon satisfying the system, receives a receipt, which he presents to the teller.

The system is structured to err in the customer's favor, rejecting just two in a hundred dubious vocal matches. "Telling a customer they're not them doesn't go over well," Boyle explains. On the other hand, the system should help protect customers from fraudulent attempts to gain access to their account.

A key lesson from the pilots was that the initial recording must be pristine, Boyle said. Consequently, recording cubicles will be installed in the branches and those who telephone will receive more guidance, including, for instance, "please move away from the dishwasher," she said.

The voice system vendor, Votan Corp., Pleasanton, Calif., believes Chase's application (service-marked Xtra Secure) is the only commercial application of voice verification here.

Chase is also believed to have been the first bank to test dynamic signature verification. The application, from New York-based PenOp, doesn't just record an image of the customer's signature. As Boyle says, "it can tell how fast you write, how you dot your i's and cross your t's."

A PenOp spokesperson said it has a number of bank clients whose names it cannot divulge. The Internal Revenue Service started last spring to accept PenOp's use in electronically filed tax returns.

Another application lending credence to biometrics and likely to bear upon bank business is electronic benefits transfer. A government task force report suggested it would be worth delaying the 1999 deadline for implementing EBT to accommodate biometrics. In fact, Indentix fingerprinting of welfare recipients currently is being tested in five states.

Other banks reportedly testing/using finger-based biometrics are Bank of America, Citicorp., Mellon Bank, Bankers Trust, and Chevy Chase Savings and Loan Association, Chevy Chase, Md. Fidelity Investments Inc. is rumored to be testing voice verification.