Big banks embrace 'pay by voice'...Alexa, I can trust you with my checkbook, right?
Alexa, I can trust you with my checkbook, right?
BY KEN SWEET AP Business Writer June 20, 2018 06:20 AM Updated
NEW YORK Hey
Alexa, what's my bank account balance?
Big banks and financial companies have started to offer
banking through virtual assistants — Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google's
Assistant — in a way that will allow customers to check their balances, pay
bills and, in the near future, send money just with their voice. And with the
rapid adoption of Zelle, a bank-to-bank transfer system, it soon could be
possible to send money to friends or family instantly with voice commands.
But the potential to do such sensitive tasks through a
smart speaker raises security concerns. Virtual assistants and smart speakers
are still relatively new technologies, and potentially susceptible to being
exploited by cyber criminals.
Regional banking giant U.S. Bank is the first bank to be
on all three services — Alexa, Siri and Assistant. The company did a soft
launch of its Siri and Assistant services in early March and this month started
marketing the option to customers.
Other financial companies have set up virtual assistant
features. Credit card companies Capital One and American Express both have
Alexa skills that allow customers to check their balances and pay bills. There
are other smaller banks and credit unions that have set up Google Assistant or
Alexa as well.
"We want to be there for our customers in any
possible way that we can," said Gareth Gaston, executive vice president
for omnichannel banking at U.S. Bank.
For now, U.S. Bank is keeping the features available
through bank-by-voice fairly restrictive. Customers will be able to check bank
balances, pay U.S. Bank credit cards and mortgages, ask Alexa or Google the due
dates on bills, and other basic functions. Money cannot be transferred from a
U.S. Bank account using voice yet, Gaston said, but the bank is considering the
option.
Asking Google, Alexa or Siri for the weather or to tell a
joke is one thing, but it's a whole other issue when these assistants access
and share sensitive personal information. These apps will typically announce a
person's available balance over the speaker, which has the potential to create
awkward situations at parties.
In the case of Google and Alexa, users must create a
secure connection between their bank and the assistant through Alexa's Skills
or Google's Actions. All banks require the use of a four-digit PIN before they
will provide balance and bank account info over these speakers, and suggest
making those PINs different from the one on a customer's ATM card.
Apple's Siri is the most restrictive of the three virtual
assistants, only showing a user a bank account balance on a screen, and not
allowing other features like paying bills. Banks can integrate Siri into their
iPhone and iPad apps, but Apple's HomePod smart speaker that launched earlier
this year does not currently accept banking commands. A company spokeswoman
declined to say whether that feature was coming.
Google Assistant has the capability to do individual
voice recognition, providing one additional level of security on that platform,
but that is not implemented on U.S. Bank's Action yet. Security experts say
that additional level of security could be foiled, however.
"Users' voices can be recorded, manipulated, and
replayed to the assistants," said Kurt Baumgartner, a security researcher
with Kaspersky Lab. "Also, with access to banking accounts and abilities
to transfer and pay out money, remote financial fraud may be within the reach
of cybercriminal groups soon."
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