Daon develops payment technology for Amazon Alexa
Daon has developed technology for financial institutions to allow their customers to transfer money verbally with Amazon’s Alexa, CNET reports.
Several major financial institutions have plans to launch the service in the next nine to 18 months, Daon told CNET.
Voice apps, also known as “Alexa skills,” offered by Capital One, Ally Bank, and American Express already allow users to apply payments to bills or transfer money between their own accounts.
In a demonstration, a Daon software engineer asked Alexa to open Daon Bank, according to CNET.
“Hello Jason,” Alexa responded. “Thank you for using the Daon Bank Alexa skill. How can I help you today? You can say ‘What’s my balance?’ or ‘Send money.'” When he attempted to send $1,000, Alexa told him further authentication was required, and the Daon app on his cellphone verified his identity with a selfie. It can also verify a user’s identity with voice or fingerprint recognition or a PIN.
As it is implemented by banks, the authentication will likely take place within the mobile banking app, and the person receiving the payment will have to be listed as a payee in the user’s account. A Daon representative also said that authentication with voice recognition directly through Alexa may be possible in the future, but Amazon does not make audio data available to developers at this time.
Daon recently partnered with Digi-Sign to provide FIDO-compliant authentication for a mobile banking app from a large Hong Kong bank.
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