KUALA LUMPUR: Citibank Bhd (Citi Malaysia) today becomes the first financial institution in Malaysia to roll out the Voice Biometrics technology, to replace the current system that involves remembering multiple personal identification number (PINs) and personal questions.
The Voice Biometrics capability identifies customers through their voice print, which similar to a fingerprint, is unique to each person.
"Biometrics will play a critical role in the future of banking and Citi is paving the way locally as a premier global digital banking leader," said its chief executive officer, Lee Lung Nien during the launch earlier today.
"We are targeting to have 1,000 conversion to Biometrics a day and we are hopeful that we would be able to achieve 100 per cent conversion rate over the long term here in Malaysia."
Lee had shared earlier that Citi Malaysia has some one million customers in its consumer banking division.
Malaysia is also the fifth country in Asia Pacific (APAC) to have roll out the Voice Biometrics authentication.
"We are aggressively pushing forward the Biometrics agenda as in the last 12 months alone we had implemented this platform in Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and now in Malaysia," said Lee.
"Our plan is to cover all 12 of Citigroup's consumer banking markets in APAC by 2017. At the global level, the APAC region represents more than half of the bank's 19 consumer markets"
Citigroup currently has around 15 million consumer banking customers in APAC and the bank expects to have at least one million customers actively using voice biometrics authentication in the next 12 months.
"Asia is an important region of innovation at for group, and Malaysia, given its high penetration of mobile phones and fast technological adoption rate is a market leader in this segment," said Lee.
Citi Malaysia was established in 1959 and has more than 6,000 employees across its 11 branches and three centres of excellence.
When asked if there are plans to open more branches here, Lee said that there is no need.
"Digital banking is the way to move forward. Currently, almost 60 per cent of Citi's customers in Malaysia access their banking services online and this number is steadily growing year-on-year," Lee.
"We are comfortable with our 11 branches and we have no plans to open anymore in the short term."
Citigroup is currently present in 160 countries around the world.