Revolutionizing voice for the financial sector: Speech Recognition for financial services

Finance is fast becoming one of the most important languages of our time. However, it's also one of the most complicated, especially for speech-to-text software.

Financial jargon is almost like its own language for the industry and must be treated in a specific way.

To demonstrate how our Autonomous Speech Recognition (ASR) engine does that, we compared our finance-specific English language pack to our Global English language pack.

Introduction to Voice Technology in Banking and Financial Services

The banking and financial services industry is undergoing a remarkable transformation, thanks to the rapid adoption of speech recognition technology. By integrating speech recognition into their operations, financial institutions are evolving how they interact with clients, manage customer inquiries, and deliver services.

This shift is not only enhancing the customer experience but also driving significant gains in operational efficiency and security across the sector.

Speech recognition technology enables banks and financial services firms to automate a wide range of tasks, from handling routine customer inquiries and checking account balances to processing transactions and authenticating client identities.

With the ability to understand and process natural language, voice tech allows customers to interact with their banks using simple voice commands, making financial services more accessible than ever before.

This is particularly valuable in call centers, where integrated speech recognition systems can quickly address common questions, freeing up human agents to focus on more complex client interactions that require a personal touch.

One of the key benefits of implementing speech recognition in banking and financial services is the improvement in accuracy and speed. Automated systems can process requests in real time, reducing wait times and minimizing errors.

Additionally, voice recognition technology enhances security by enabling advanced authentication methods such as voice biometrics, which help prevent fraud and ensure compliance with industry regulations. This is especially important when dealing with sensitive information and high-value transactions.

The use of virtual assistants and voice assistants powered by speech recognition is also on the rise, providing customers with a convenient way to manage their finances, access account information, and perform transactions on the go.

Field workers and employees can leverage mobile devices equipped with speech recognition to update documents, access client data, and complete tasks efficiently, no matter where they are.

As financial institutions continue to integrate speech recognition technology into their systems, they are seeing significant efficiency gains, reduced operational costs, and improved productivity.

The ability to automate routine processes not only streamlines operations but also allows businesses to focus on delivering higher-value services to their clients.

So, the integration of speech recognition technology in the financial services industry is certainly revolutionizing the way banks and financial institutions operate. By providing secure, efficient, and user-friendly solutions, voice recognition technology is helping the financial sector meet evolving business needs, enhance customer satisfaction, and stay ahead in a competitive market.

As the technology continues to advance, its role in shaping the future of banking and financial services will only become more and more significant.

Finance-specific language pack output:

"Reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with gaap in our slide presentation."

Global English language pack output:

"Reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with gas in our slide presentation."

This is just one example of how little errors can disrupt the accuracy of a transcript which can, in turn, affect decisions. Our accurate, finance-specific ASR language pack is helping banks revolutionize voice in the sector by leveraging integrated speech recognition systems to improve customer experience, operational efficiency, and security.

By making financial services more accessible and user-friendly than ever before, speech recognition technology also enhances accessibility for clients with disabilities, enabling them to use voice commands to access banking features and functionalities.

Users benefit from faster, more convenient access to banking services, such as checking their account balance or performing transactions, simply by using their voice. In addition, voice biometrics verify customer identity using unique patterns, strengthening security and preventing fraud.

Finance’s Many ASR Use Cases

You may wonder how financial language would ever influence ASR. For starters, there are contact centers. Costing £234 billion in lost UK business sales every year, a bad customer experience can drastically affect the market. Many financial organizations implement speech recognition to improve contact center operations and customer experience. By integrating speech recognition technology, these organizations can transcribe and analyze conversations in contact centers to enhance compliance and customer engagement. To ensure contact centers make the most of the data they gather, finance-specific language packs like ours reduce the number of errors and help improve the customer experience.

Then you have voice assistants. Transactions of devices such as Amazon’s Alexa are expected to rise by 400% by 2023, amassing 19.4 billion in eCommerce sales. These assistants are becoming increasingly common in our everyday lives, with tasks such as shopping and banking available via speech recognition. For instance, a major retail bank has implemented voice assistants to allow customers to check balances and make payments using only their voice. So, implementing them can increase both B2C and B2B eCommerce ROI by streamlining and enhancing customer interactions.

Financial language isn’t exclusive to banking; it influences all our daily lives. Tailored language packs will prevent potentially costly mistakes. With an accurate ASR, voice recognition banking services are easier to use and are less likely to leave businesses fixing mistakes and preventing consumers from becoming frustrated.

Paving the Way to Fewer Compliance Problems

An accurate speech-to-text engine doesn't just boost performance and save time. It's also a safety mechanism, particularly for investment firms. GuardREC writes that “simply recording all phone calls and electronic communication that may lead to a transaction is, by itself, not enough to meet the rigid requirements of the MiFID II directive.”

To take the extra step, finance companies must “actively monitor communication to ensure compliance with regulations and minimize the risk of violations,” GuardREC explains. This is done with an accurate speech-to-text engine. It flags inflammatory phrases, preventing anything from slipping through the cracks. Our ASR's finance-specific language pack provides compliance-grade accuracy necessary for modern finance.

New Features That Make This Possible

Our ASR's financial language capabilities is helped by one of our newer features, Entity Formatting. This turns words into numbers, currencies, phone numbers, dates and so on – crucial for any finance-related audio. Here's an example of it in action.

Before:

Today is the 5th of January twenty twenty-one. We're very pleased with our exceptional fourth-quarter performance after an unprecedented year for 2020. Total revenues were one hundred and eighty-three billion dollars, up 13 percent year on year, or up 14 percent in constant currency.

After:

Today is the 5th of January 2021. We're very pleased with our exceptional fourth-quarter performance after an unprecedented year for 2020. Total revenues are $183 billion, up 13% year on year, or up 14% in constant currency.

The difference is clear. Entity Formatting saves time and avoids confusion by making the transcriptions more accurate with improved readability; vital features across various industries, such as broadcasting, medicine, and education. Coupled with the financial language pack, our ASR is fully equipped to accurately support use cases within the financial sector. Here's a quick recap:

• Various use cases: The versatility of financial language permeating our lives highlights how costly transcription errors are.

• Fewer compliance problems: ASR's ability to flag inflammatory financial terms protects investment firms from breaking compliance directives.

• Finance-specific language pack and Entity Formatting: two new additions that make speech-to-text a viable possibility for finance use cases.

The finance-specific language pack's value is felt across industries. It adds to the stack of technology for financial use cases and by adding ASR to your business, you can save time and money through automation. Moreover, you can consume Speechmatics ASR on-premises, in the cloud or on-device, and in real-time or for pre-recorded media.

Essentially, the possibilities are endless.