Financial Plus Credit Union Cuts Authentication Time 93% and AHT 14% With Voice Biometrics

By Illuma
October 17, 2024

Financial Plus Credit Union was facing challenges with traditional verification practices. Contact Center Manager Ann Wright witnessed firsthand the frustration and friction. “It was a painful process to authenticate our members. We had our standard authentication process with a series of questions that were set in stone that we were required to ask. Using knowledge-based authentication (KBA) took three to four minutes on average. I’ve even seen calls that took almost six minutes.”

Cutting average authentication time down to 14 seconds has removed friction from the process for Financial Plus Credit Union. The team is able to easily block even well-prepared fraudsters that were a persistent threat without causing any disruption for members. According to Ann, “Because our agents are able to authenticate with voice, each call is a conversation. It is warmer. Escalations are way down. As the contact center manager, I’m the one who deals with the upset members. These days, I don’t even remember when I’ve last had one of those calls.” 

About Illuma

Illuma, a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), specializes in voice authentication software that replaces traditional knowledge-based authentication practices in call centers. Illuma provides frictionless voice authentication and fraud prevention for credit union contact centers to substantially reduce call handle times, improve member experience, and increase account security. 

The company’s platform, Illuma Shield™, continuously analyzes the unique characteristics of the speaker’s voice and calling device using state-of-the-art Signal Processing, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. This proprietary voice authentication system rapidly and seamlessly validates the identity of callers during natural conversation without requiring security Q&A or spoken password phrases.