Banamex subsidiary California Commerce Bank (CCB) has selected SpeechWorks' speech recognition technology to provide a bilingual telephone service to customers in the US and Mexico.
Speechworks claims the new Bank-by Phone system will the first commercial implementation of a multi-lingual, speech-enabled phone banking system. It replaces a touch-tone system and will enable customers to conduct real-time banking transactions using landline and wireless phones in either English or Spanish.
Users will no longer have to go through a rigid pre-determined menu, says Speechworks, but rather use natural speech to obtain up-to-date information on current and savings accounts as well as credit cards. If a caller chooses, a summary of all transactions will also be possible to request by fax.
The system is expected to be available to CCB customers in the second quarter of 2001. SpeechWorks' partner, Paragon Systems, will provide the hardware from Dialogic, an Intel Company.