The wealth and investment arm of Barclays is to start using telephone voice recognition software that it claims will be able to automatically verify the identity of customers within 30 seconds of speaking.

Customers will no longer have to go through the process of answering security questions when using telephone banking, in a move that the bank said would reduce average call times by up to five per cent. The new measures aim to not only help improve security, but also reduce costs, Barclays said in a statement.

The software, called FreeSpeech, has been developed by Nuance, the company responsible for Apple's Siri technology.

FreeSpeech works by comparing the customer's voice to the voiceprint stored on file and then sending a silent signal to the Barclays agent to proceed. If the customer is not verified by the system, or security thresholds are not met, representatives can use traditional methods.

The system was first introduced five months ago and is now set to be officially rolled out.

Since its introduction, over 84 per cent of Barclays’ customers have signed up, with 95 per cent of those customers successfully verified upon their first use of the system, Barclays said.

“In this competitive environment we need to make sure that clients’ needs for convenience and ease of access are effectively balanced with our mutual need for security. Nuance’s voice biometrics technology is playing a vital role in ensuring our wider client service transformation project is an outstanding success," said Matt Smallman, leader of the client experience strategy and change team at Barclays' wealth and investment team.

In other recent news, earlier this month the firm appointed Julie Fairclough as director and deputy local platform manager for its wealth advisory division in Jersey.