Mobile-first Starling Bank released a video today showing off an integration of its API with a Google Home device.
The feature is not available for Starling customers yet, though it’s coming, according to Megan Caywood, chief platform officer at Starling Bank.
Caywood told Bank Innovation:
Voice features are primarily going to be made available through various Starling integrations, like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Siri, and so forth. At Starling we’re focused on making banking easier for people going about their daily lives, and this integration provides users with ease and convenience when it comes to their money – you don’t have to even pick up your phone to make payments with this integration. It’s fast, simple, and fits in with the way people live.
We’re excited to make integrations like this available to Starling users, and to even let them build on top of our API to create their own integrations.
Starling is a London-based mobile-heavy, though not mobile-only, challenger bank. Launched as Bank Possible in 2014, Starling focuses on providing all of the same services as a traditional bank, but through a digital account, one single card, and a smartphone app.
As seen in the video below, Starling’s representatives used the integration to check their account balance and make money transfers, but more is coming soon, according to Caywood:
We’ve built it so that you can check your Starling account balance via Google Home, as well as how much you spent for any particular day or period of time. So, for example, I could ask Google Home how much I spent yesterday, last week, or last month. Then, you can also pay friends or bills via Google Home. If you can’t remember who you have set up as a registered payee in Starling, you can also ask Starling to list who you can pay. We’ll be setting up a second level of authorization for payments for security as well, and that feature will be available when it’s launched.
Alongside text-based chatbots, voice banking is growing more and more popular. Voice offers several conveniences when it comes to meeting a consumer’s banking needs, such as the potential ability to pay a bill just by shouting in the direction of a smart speaker.
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