National Australian Bank and Google team up on voice services (GOOGL)

BI Intelligence

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National Australian Bank (NAB) is set to become Australia's first bank to introduce voice services via Google's virtual assistant on smartphones and Google Home devices, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

At first, the assistant will only be able to answer generic queries from customers, such as where to find a branch location or how to apply for a credit card. However, the bank expects this functionality to become much more personalized, which will eventually allow customers to perform essential banking functions such as accessing their accounts or completing transactions. The bank is also open to adding voice banking capabilities via other smart assistants, such as Apple's Siri, which follows a trend being played out in banking across the globe. 

Voice banking is still in its infancy, but it's poised to become a major channel for financial institutions, especially if consumer concerns can be alleviated. 

• Consumers have embraced voice services after being introduced to smart assistants via their smartphones and smart homes. In 2017, 75% of iPhone owners had used Siri, while 63% of Android smartphone owners had used a virtual assistant on their devices. One such service that consumers are expected to turn to, and one that banks can leverage, is voice payments — just in the US, voice payments are expected to nearly quadruple over the next five years, reaching 31% of US adults or 78 million consumers, BI Intelligence estimates. 
• Banks around the globe are flocking to offer their customers voice features, likely in the hopes of reaping the benefits of being an early adopter. In the last year alone, the Royal Bank of Canada introduced bill pay via Siri, USAA gave customers access to spending habits via Amazon's Alexa, and American Express gave users the abilities to access accounts and pay bills via Alexa. Being early adopters should allow these companies to perfect these relatively new experiences, in turn allowing them to see higher payments volume and increased loyalty as voice banking becomes more popular. 
• However, these firms need to keep security top of mind. For example, 42% of Amazon Echo owners who haven’t used voice payments pointed to safety concerns as the primary deterrent. Finding ways to alleviate these concerns, such as introducing added biometric authentication, could prove to be the differentiator between a successful and unsuccessful voice banking channel. 

A revolution in payments and banking is beginning as virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa gain the abilities of cashiers, personal shoppers, and bank tellers.

Already, Siri can help users make peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers with Venmo, Alexa can pay off Capital One credit card bills, and Google Assistant can let users shop with their voice from nearby stores. 

This is just the beginning. Today, 18 million US consumers have made a voice payment, and BI Intelligence projects that figure will quadruple over the next five years. 

Dan Van Dyke, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on voice payments that:

• Shares current and projected adoption of voice payments.
• Outlines voice payments and banking integrations on the market.
• Examines growth drivers and barriers to consumers' voice payments adoption.
• Provides strategies for successfully deploying voice interfaces. 

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