February 13, 2014 - Employees at U.S. Bank have begun a pilot of new software that utilises voice biometrics to allow consumers to access their credit card accounts on mobile devices.

The technology is able to capture the unique rhythms of a person's speech and uses pattern-matching programs to identify the voice against authenticated voice snippets.

Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance enterprise division, which has created the software, said that replacing traditional security questions with natural voice interactions, will reinvent the customer experience within the banking industry.

Nuance's biometrics application, which is in testing at the U.S. Bank, addresses consumers' growing dissatisfaction with PINs, passwords, and security questions, and the reduced effectiveness of these measures to protect their accounts and personal information.

Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer for U.S. Bank payment services, said: "Customers are becoming accustomed to using their voice to interact with their smartphones and can become frustrated with key entering passwords. Exploring a spoken passphrase login through this technology is a logical next step in our work in biometrics."