Voice Recognition for Payments: Obligations and Rights of Customers and Financial Institutions

Consumer and commercial customers alike welcome the option to simply and securely complete electronic funds transfers and perform other account actions by making a phone call. With advances in voice recognition technology and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to continuously improve  the detection and analysis of voice patterns and voiceprints to avoid unauthorized transactions, financial institutions and others are increasingly using voice recognition for the origination and confirmation of electronic funds transfers and account access. This raises issues regarding contract terms and disclosures, privacy rights of consumers and individuals at businesses, liability for unauthorized transactions, administration of disputes, and whether voice recognition is a commercially reasonable security procedure under applicable law.