With voice biometrics authentication already been implemented in Taiwan, the bank is set to introduce it in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore in the upcoming weeks.
Citi Asia Pacific dead for consumer banking Anand Selva said: "The voice biometrics authentication capability underscores Citi’s focus on technology to better serve our customers.
"We know that remembering different PINs and answering multiple questions can make the process frustrating. With this new capability, we offer our customers a faster and more secure authentication for a better customer experience."
The bank claims to be the first to launch the services across Asia Pacific. With a customer base of around 15 million in the region currently, the lender expects to see at least 1,000,000 customers actively using voice biometrics authentication in the next 12 months.
Citi aims to take the number to 3,000,000 over the next three years.
The technology will allow its customers to cut spent on verifying their details by around 45 seconds on an average, the bank said.
The voice biometrics authentication identifies a customer through his voice print, which, similar to a fingerprint, is unique to each person.
Citi’s customers are provided with an option to enroll to the new service by recording their voices. The bank will use recorded voices to generate and store their voice prints to identify users in their subsequent calls.
Citi Asia Pacific head for consumer banking operations Rahul Joshi said: "Biometrics will play a critical part in the future of banking and we are excited to be paving the way for Citi globally.
"Today, our call centers in Asia Pacific receive about 35 million calls annually, of which a large portion are manually verified. With voice biometrics authentication, we will make the verification process easier, faster, and more secure for clients."
