HSBC UK’s voice biometrics system blocked 2x more fraud attempts in 2019

HSBC’s voice biometrics system VoiceID has successfully blocked fraud attempts in 2019 preventing nearly £400 million (roughly US$493 million) being stolen by phone scammers in the U.K., the bank announced.

VoiceID was introduced in 2016, when HSBC partnered with Nuance Communications, who has helped financial institutions like Royal Bank of Canada, ING Netherlands, Manulife, USAA and Eastern Bank to safely and securely identify customers based on their voice.

The voice biometrics technology detected a double amount of fraud attempts in 2019. With a total of 25 million verifications ran since 2016, 35 percent were conducted in 2019 alone, respectively some 8.75 million verifications.

In 2019, HSBC UK registered more than 500,000 new VoiceID customers, with 16,000 enrolled on a weekly basis, compared to 10,000 a week in the previous year.

The institution warns that the rate of attempted fraud has doubled year-on-year, as it detected more than 17,000 fraud calls, double the amount in 2018. At least 1,000 attempts for phone fraud were detected on a monthly basis, with a record of 1,800 in one month.

Currently there are 1 million active customers using VoiceID. Since it was rolled out in the U.K., VoiceID identified more than 29,000 fraudulent calls, and has helped save more than £395 million (roughly US$486 million). HSBC says this may be a result of high-profile third-party data breaches, phishing emails and scam text messages that happened in the past years.

“The introduction of VoiceID has not only made it much more convenient for customers accessing their accounts, it has also been instrumental in stopping more attempts at telephone fraud than ever before, protecting customers’ money,” said Kerri-Anne Mills, head of contact centre and customer service at HSBC U.K., in a prepared statement.

“We are now enrolling around 16,000 customers in VoiceID each week and the technology continues to be instrumental in the fight against fraud, providing a library of fraudsters’ voice prints to cross check against new incoming calls.”

Last September, HSBC integrated Featurespace’s Adaptive Behavioral Biometrics technology to detect and prevent fraud and money laundering during customer onboarding and digital sessions.

Article Topics

banking  |  biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  identity verification  |  Nuance Communications  |  voice biometrics  |  voiceprints