Barclays To Abolish Telephone Banking Passwords

Following the news that Barclays is abolishing passwords for its telephone banking customers, Richard Lack, Director of Sales EMEA at customer identity management experts Gigya commented below.

Gigya works with brands such as Coca-Cola and Dell to help them create mutually beneficial relationships with their customers.

Richard Lack, Director of Sales EMEA at Gigya:

 “The news that Barclays is abolishing passwords, in favour of voice recognition technology, for its telephone banking customers comes as no surprise. In Europe, consumers tell us that they are struggling to remember what is now an average of more than 100 passwords across their personal accounts and devices.

At a time when the number of devices we own is rising sharply, the future lies in methods of authentication without passwords, which consumers clearly favour, both in terms of convenience and enhanced security.

Of course, using one’s voice is far more convenient than creating and remembering yet another username/password combination, along with the answers to tedious security questions. What’s more, our most recent survey found that 80 per cent of all consumers believe that biometric authentication is more secure than traditional registration.

Biometric authentication is a powerful enabler, allowing businesses smart enough to deploy it to significantly increase rates of registration, gaining data and insight about their customers, while also increasing customer security. This is a win/win scenario which sounds the death-knell for awkward and insecure passwords sooner than we may imagine.”