This was published 6 years ago
Need your NAB bank balance? Talk to Google Home
In an Australian first, National Australia Bank is this week unveiling features that allow customers to have basic banking questions answered by Google's virtual assistant, including its voice-controlled speaker, Google Home.
It is the latest bet by a bank that customers will increasingly want to do their banking on voice-activated platforms, with other lenders including ANZ Bank and ING Direct also in recent months flagging the shift in customer behaviour.
NAB's Jonathan Davey expects customers will be able to manage their bank accounts through voice-based devices within two years.
While none of these banks is yet allowing customers to log in and manage their finances by speaking to a machine, such a scenario looks likely within a couple of years.
NAB on Friday said its customers could now ask simple questions such as how to have a lost credit card replaced, or how to reset their password, through Google's virtual assistants.
Initially, the assistant will only be able answer about 100 generic queries, similar to what would appear on a "frequently asked questions" section of a website.
However, executive general manager of digital and innovation, Jonathan Davey, said that over the longer term, the program was likely to be rolled out in a more personalised way, such as allowing people to access their accounts and make transactions by talking with a virtual assistant.
"We think that is probably the way of the future," Mr Davey said.
The bank does not yet have definite plans to roll out voice-activated functions into the "authenticated environment" of individual customer accounts. Security concerns are one reason why the virtual assistant is only able to handle generic questions.
Even so, Mr Davey said it would "certainly be less than two years" until this type of change was introduced, because the bank's market testing has found customers value the convenience of talking to a device.
"The ease of just saying two words 'OK Google', and then asking a question, is fantastic," he said. "I don't think it will necessarily be the only way customers engage, but I think what it does is provide them with additional choice and additional convenience over and above what they have today."
The change follows ANZ Bank's move last month to allow customers to use their voice to authorise "pay anyone" payments of more than $1000, allowing large payments to be made on smart phones.
ING Direct also expects its "chatbots" will be capable of answering individual customer questions such as "How much money do I have in my account" by the end of this year, though it has not set a date for rolling out such a change.
The move comes as Google is also launching a range of new gadgets that aim to use the technology giant's virtual assistant.
Meanwhile, NAB on Thursday also said it was slashing unnecessary terms and conditions from its small business loan contracts, an area where banks have been slammed in official reviews.
It said the terms and conditions on a standard business loan had been cut by a third, and it would axe a number of events that could trigger a default by a customers.
NAB's chief legal and commercial counsel Sharon Cook said that over time, contracts tended to grow increasingly complex, and after a detailed review by the bank of these documents, it was "time for a change."
"It was time to actually change the balance so that we think about what our customers want, not just what the bank wants," Ms Cook said.
The bank said its changes to small business loan contracts would affect more than 130,000 customers.