CU Voice Authentication Expands for Members in Michigan

The $1.4 billion, Grand Blanc, Mich.-based Dort Financial Credit Union announced its more than 103,000 members will no longer need to answer security questions when they call in to the credit union’s call center due to the addition of a voice biometric authentication solution from fintech CUSO Illuma Labs.

In an announcement about Dort Financial’s move into voice biometrics on Tuesday, credit union officials stated they had selected the Illuma Shield program from the Plano, Texas-based Illuma Labs to help reduce call times for members as well as create a more seamless call center experience.

Dort Vice President of Operations Daniel Gatfield said, “We thoroughly evaluated Illuma Shield through a controlled pilot in our call center and we are confident we will be cutting the verification portion of each call from over 90 seconds to under 15 seconds. This will add up to substantial savings in our call center operations while also streamlining the member experience.”

Typically members must answer a number of security questions before a call center representative can access their account. This type of security barrier has become less effective as hackers can often create good guesses to security questions based on information included in social media profiles and from email phishing scams.

Using voice verification, the program can recognize each individual’s unique voiceprint to access the account.

Illuma CEO Milind Borkar said, “Security questions are becoming easier and easier for identity thieves to beat. With data breaches and social engineering rampant, credit unions need a higher level of security to prevent account takeovers.”