The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), owned by the Republic of Korea and who proudly dotes the slogan, “Global Leading Bank,” recently enlisted the help of Nuance Communications Inc. to create a biometric authentication solution for video and voice calls for customers in contact with banking officials. The deployment marks the first biometrics-based solution for video calls in the industry—and it is already projected to save over 100,000 customers from fraudsters.

New World, New Problems

Since the onset of the pandemic—which has, for institutions like IBK, completely overhauled the way officials interact with customers—Nuance contends that here has been a 200-400% uptick in fraud attacks. This novel, virtual business world has allowed bad actors to take advantage of digital channels with unprecedented ease. Nuance’s AI tech, specifically its Gatekeeper platform, seeks to remedy that for IBK.

“We’ve made it our top priority to ensure customer safety, convenience and experience is maintained despite [the pandemic],” Customer service strategy manager of IBK, Shinwoo Kang said. “With Nuance Gatekeeper, we’ve made it easier and more secure than ever for customers to bank by phone or video without having to visit our branches. This type of advanced, AI-enabled biometrics technology is the future of financial transactions in Korea, and we’re proud to already be delivering on that for our customers.”

The Gates of Authentication

Gatekeeper, a package that includes myriad intelligent services (Nuance Lightning Engine, ConversationPrint accuracy improvements, fraud datashare and cloud integrations are a few examples) helps organizations avoid fraud losses and ensure frictionless customer experience across voice and video sharing channels. Gatekeeper’s analytics prowess is AI-based; the platform combs through a customer’s voice for over a thousand traits, from pace to rhythm to tone. Already, it serves over 600 million consumers and was named best mobile authentication and security solution in the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards.

“IBK launched voice biometrics authentication formally to its customers in June 2020,” says Brett Beranek, vice president and general manager at Nuance Communications. “IBK is the first bank we’ve seen leverage biometrics for voice authentication during video calls—a trend we anticipate will only increase in the future. This is a perfect example of how to leverage AI to adequately protect consumers during a time of increased, advanced fraud attacks brought on by the reliance on digital experiences in recent months.”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Olivia Baker is a Tech Innovation Fellow at Identity Review from Columbia University, where she writes on tech policy and national digital identity technologies.

Contact Olivia Baker at olivia@identityreview.com.

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