LONDON -- If remembering a bunch of different passwords is something you find challenging, you may welcome this decision to roll out other ways to access your bank account.
People who bank with HSBC and online bank First Direct in the UK will be able to access their accounts through voice recognition when making a telephone call and touch ID through the mobile app.
The bank says it's using technology from voice-recognition giant Nuance Communications, which checks 100 unique components of a person's voice such as speed, cadence, pronunciation and vocal tract creating a voice print to replace a traditional password or personal identification number (PIN).
First Direct customers will be able to sign up in the "coming weeks" to use it, while people banking with HSBC will have to wait until the summer. HSBC and First Direct have also added touch ID to their mobile apps for iOS customers.
In an emailed statement, the bank claims this is the largest rollout of voice biometric security tech in the UK -- Barclays already introduced a similar feature in 2014, but only for its high net worth customers.
"The launch of voice and touch ID makes it even quicker and easier for customers to access their bank account, using the most secure form of password technology – the body," Francesca McDonagh, HSBC UK’s head of retail banking and wealth management, says.
University College London senior lecturer in cyber-security Dr. Emiliano De Cristofaro told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that if the bank is rolling out the technology, the company must be confident about it, but cautioned that things "can change quickly in the real world."
However, he said that the voice recognition technology is "resilient" to attacks from people mimicking another customer's voice or recordings.