Westpac welcomes Siri for managing payments
Westpac is enabling Siri for its users to manage their accounts and transactions from iPhone devices, claiming to be the first in the country.
To authenticate payments, customers will be prompted to input their fingerprint or face ID before the money is transferred to the payee.
Through Siri’s voice command, customers will also be able to check up to three Westpac account balances.
Westpac says this will be a potential common interaction with the phone: “Hey Siri, pay John Citizen $20 for dinner”. Siri’s response: “Here is your Westpac payment of $20 to John Citizen. Do you want to send it?”
The bank says almost half of Australians (48%) use a voice assistant on their smartphone, with a third of this group using it at least once a day.
Westpac chief George Frazis says: “We know a growing number of Australians are using Siri to help make their lives easier and faster, from checking the weather through to setting an alarm, all with a simple voice request.”
Siri for Westpac follows the implementation of Westpac Banking Skill for Amazon’s Alexa and Westpac for Google Assistant earlier this year.
According to the bank, it will soon be launching its Travel Companion for iPhone users, and iMessage capabilities for payments.
Travel Companion displays the most popular travel features on the home screen of the mobile banking app when travelling overseas.
Westpac for iMessage – a new “You Owe Me” feature allows customers to get a specific amount owed to them when sharing their account details via iMessage.
Earlier this year, Westpac made the jump and moved all its core banking applications into its brand new private cloud environment.
