Israel Discount bank wished to offer a simple, comfortable and quick P2P money transfer service to its customers, based on voice commands. The simple solution: a digital platform that customers already use on a daily basis – Apple’s Siri. Douglas Blakey reports
It is a first in Israel, and one of the first anywhere: Israel Discount Bank (IDB) has enabled customers to use voice biometrics to initiate payments using Apple’s Siri.
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The bank’s goal was not only to enhance the customer experience and increase engagement levels, the service’s launch has also served to empower the bank’s digital brand.
Basic mobile-based payment and money transfer services tend to be cumbersome, which potentially reduce the user experience and lower engagement. The need to provide numerous details in order to initiate the payment creates unnecessary friction and turns the process into an obstacle, lowering customer usage rates.
IDB has avoided such potential pitfalls. While all other Israeli mobile banking customers must log on to banking apps in order to transfer cash to contacts, or make payments, IDB customers enjoy a wider choice and can perform the money transfer via a short and simple voice command to Siri. The result, says the bank, meets consumer demands for effortless, instant satisfaction.
Launch of the service created a buzz in both the customer environment and the Israeli digital banking industry, supporting the development of IDB’s digital brand as up to date and highly voice-oriented.
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By GlobalDataUse of voice technology in mobile banking has also attracted interest from other banks worldwide, with many also considering similar implementations.
So far, the service has been used by thousands of IDB customers, generating very positive user feedback.
Israel Discount Bank: Implementation
IDB’s mobile app allows users to transfer money via a bank transfer, or cash via an ATM, to any of the user’s contacts, as long as they are also an IDB customer. All that is needed to make the transaction is the contact’s phone number.
With the new “pre-geared” voice-activated Siri service, the money-transfer process is simple and intuitive: the user activates Siri via the iPhone, and asks it to transfer money to a friend or institution; a typical instruction would be: “Siri, I want to transfer $10 to Mike”. Siri then asks the user which app should make the transfer, at which point the user chooses the IDB app.
Siri locates the recipient’s phone number on the iPhone contact list, and the user is transferred to the bank’s mobile app in order to login – password or biometric logins are available – and reconfirm the transaction details before it is completed.
Once launched, in order to increase consumer take-up levels, an introductory pop-up screen has been embedded inside the mobile banking app.
Of particular note is the project’s speed to market: the bank managed to initiate the peer-to-peer money transfer via Siri service only five months after the project was launched.
