The UK bank reckons its voice biometrics system has prevented almost £249 million of customers’ money from falling into the hands of telephone fraudsters in the last year.

As more people turn to digital channels and telephone banking, HSBC UK has seen an increase in customers signing up to Voice ID, which is currently used by over 2.8 million active customers.

Voice ID detects whether the voice matches that which is held on file for the customer and therefore whether the caller is genuine. Customers need to register for the service before it will be activated for their account.

Since the technology was introduced in the UK, over 43,000 fraudulent phone calls have been identified, with over £981 million worth of customers’ money protected.

Kerri-Anne Mills, head of contact centre and customer service at HSBC UK, says: “Scammers are sophisticated and it’s a constant challenge to keep ahead of them but this is promising – we’ve seen a 50% drop in reported telephone banking fraud year-on-year. We are now enrolling around 14,000 customers in Voice ID 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.”

HSBC UK recently launched a new voice response system, taking more than 450k calls per week. Chat channels are also booming in popularity, with more than 105k chats per week. HSBC UK’s WebChat service allows customers to seamlessly move between mobile and online banking platforms and pick up a conversation where they left off.

Finextra reader Andrew carrier has this to says post-publication:

If I have a cold, it doesn’t recognise me. And, I promise you, I wasn’t the one trying to commit £249 million worth of fraud. https://t.co/yNELZUWNR4

— Andrew Carrier 🍸 (@AndrewCarrier) May 5, 2021