Telephone Banking - Authentication

Authentication

The password for telephone banking is normally not the same as for online banking. Financial institutions routinely allocate customer numbers (also under various names), whether or not customers intend to access their telephone or online banking facility. Customer numbers are normally not the same as account numbers, because a number of accounts can be linked to the one customer number. Customer numbers are also not the same as any card number which may have been issued to the customer by the financial institution. The customer will link to the customer number any of those accounts which the customer controls, which may be cheque, savings, loan, credit card and other accounts. Some financial institutions have restrictions on which accounts may be access via telephone banking.

The he customer would call the special phone number set up by the financial institution, and enter on the keypad the customer number and password. Some financial institutions have set up additional security steps for access, but there is no consistency to the approach adopted. Most telephone banking services use an automated phone answering system with phone keypad response or voice recognition capability. To ensure security, the customer must first authenticate through a numeric or verbal password or through security questions asked by a live representative.