Now ICICI allows NRIs to remit money by commanding it to Siri

Mumbai: ICICI Bank on Thursday said the diaspora will be able to remit money home by dictating commands to handset major Apple's virtual voice assistant Siri.

An NRI customer would be able to instantly initiate a remittance to her existing payees back home with a voice command to Siri, on her iPhone or iPad, the bank said in a statement.

The largest private sector lender claimed it is the first to introduce such a service, which does away with a five-step process followed at present.

The process starts by opening Siri and giving the command upon which the Apple software takes the user to a login page to complete the transaction.

It said this process is secured by the two-factor authentication parameter of device authentication and secure login by the customer and all transactions take place on its own servers which ensures that no confidential or financial information is shared.

"We are offering our NRI customers a unique combination of speed and an enriched experience of executing a transaction by just a voice command," its executive director Vijay Chandok said.

The bank had first introduced voice-based banking services two years ago by deploying voice recognition technology to verify a caller's identity through natural conversation by analysing over 100 characteristics, including voice modulation, speed, accent and pronunciation.