In volatile economic times, the Wealth Management business units of large financial institutions can become pressure cookers, as the banks most demanding clients vie for the time, attention and brain power of their selected financial advisors. When they call in to take an action, pausing to enter a password or come up with the answers to obscure challenge questions feel inconvenient and counter-productive.
In a white paper entitled, “How Banks Secure Conversations with their Most Valuable Clients”, Opus Research describes how new, real-time voice-based technologies make it possible to authenticate individual callers in the background without disturbing the normal flow of conversation. When a call comes in to the banker’s line, the voice of the caller must match the voiceprint in order for the advisor to have confidence that the caller is the person he or she claims to be.
With the client’s permission, voiceprints can be created from existing call recordings, so enrollment is no longer a speed-bump to usage. In other cases, the voiceprints are distilled from words said in the course of a call between client and advisor. In all cases, additional conversations can be used to make the voiceprint more accurate over time.
A Lifestyle Choice
Advisors offering wealth management services are specialists in providing highly-personalized or individualized services, much like a custom tailor, personal trainer or day spa. Proper treatment includes the sorts of special perks and services that each client’s status in life justifies, including immediate, pro-active, attention from dedicated advisors who are familiar with their financial, familial and future considerations.
In the context of banking, millions of dollars can be at stake if fraud should occur and long-term relationships can be destroyed if a client feels that he or she is not receiving the level of attention he or she deserves, as expeditiously as possible. That’s why banks around the world are evaluating or implementing authentication solutions that remove adoption barriers and establish a trusted link in a matter of seconds without inconveniencing the client or reducing the role of a well-respected financial advisor to that of a traffic cop.