The Rundown

• Data input is a barrier to mobile bankingadoption.
• Innovators focus on voice as an easy way to steer mobilebanking interactions.
• Skeptics abound. Some think voice recognition is not readyfor prime time

The question is fundamental: which is faster, and easier?Inputting commands into a smartphone by typing on glass or bytalking them into the device?

The fact is these are phones that were developed so that userscould talk into them. Other features such as data input via typing,for instance, got added on later.

Another fact is some mobile banking developers envision an eraof much more powerful apps that will replicate essentially thewhole of the online banking experience except this will happen on atiny screen and without the spacious keyboard of laptops or desktopcomputers.

That has triggered a rush for new input tools beyond typing onglass, which is easily foiled by large fingers, bumpy conditionsand screen glare. And in a pole position is the voice almost all ofus have and which, again, is what the phone was originally designedaround.

Siri, the Apple voice recognition app, is fast recruiting manyusers to the practice of talking to a phone to gain answers. So youmight think that similar technology will be coming to mobilebanking very soon: Where's the nearest ATM? Has my depositcleared? What's my balance? A lot of banking revolves aroundsimple questions a computer, it would seem, would easily learn.

Except not everybody is convinced that voice is a near-termsolution in mobile banking and the upshot is a street fight withBrookfield, Wisc.-based Fiserv Inc. on one side and just abouteverybody else, notably FIS, mFoundry, and Malauzai, on theopposing side.

“Voice for navigation is not ready for prime time. People use itat first, then usage falls off,” said Doug Brown, an FISsenior vice president who also is general manager of FIS Mobile.“Siri is a little early. We are watching voice carefully but wedon't see it yet.”

The potential, suggested Brown, is enormous. But between deviceand network limitations and user issues such as calling in from anoisy room or talking with a bad head cold, there could be manyways for voice to go wrong. For now, FIS seems content to watchvoice from the sidelines and let companies like Apple and Google,with its Voice Search, a Siri clone, duke it out.

Drew Sievers, CEO of Larkspur, Calif.-based mFoundry with around 900mobile banking customers, offered a similarly downbeatforecast.

“Voice will be a neat feature and quite convenient, but thereare far more pressing demands for money movement and offersdelivery from both customers and end-users,” Sievers said,adding

voice is on the to-do list but it is nowhere near the top.

Robb Gaynor, co-founder and chief technology officer at Austin,Texas-based mobile apps developer Malauzai which serves nearly 100 customers, made it three voteson the naysayers' side. “Currently, voice functionality proves tobe more gadgetry than reality. If the technology actually worked,everyone would have it already,” Gaynor said. “It tends to not bemature enough to deliver cost effectively in a mass market way. Ithink that's going to change, but it will take a while and for now,it's not even on our roadmap.”

But then there is Fiserv, which presently has the lead in mobilebanking installations with roughly 1,000 mobile banking customers.Unlike its competitors, voice is the word at the company, saidSerge van Dam, a Fiserv vice president.

Last September, at the Finovate banking technology conference inNew York, the company demonstrated a voice mobile banking app that “served as a proofof concept, van Dam said. In the video, a Fiserv executivescheduled payments to Home Depot and also to an electric utility.While there may have been a few glitches, they were minor.

“We showed this could work in our flagship mobile bankingproduct,” said van Dam.

So is Fiserv pushing forward with plans to aggressively roll outvoice-driven mobile banking? The answer gets complicated.

Van Dam conceded that his peers are right as far as they go; theappetite of financial institutions for pushing out voice as amobile banking add-on is limited right now “until we change theparadigm,” he said.

That is why Fiserv said it is currently working on a potentiallyrevolutionary use of voice where it becomes the way to log into anaccount, dispensing with username and password log-ins. That,suggested van Dam, could be the game changer that would trigger astampede into voice as an input tool across a range of mobilebanking commands.

What if the user has a sore throat and the authentication systemrefuses entry? No big deal, suggested van Dam, who indicated thatuser would then fall back onto the old fashioned username/passwordlog-in.

“If your voice isn't recognized, you'll have other ways to gainentry When you build in voice authentication, you are creating apowerful use case for voice as an input tool,” said van Dam, whoindicated that Fiserv was still buffing its product and thus, hadno installations to point to. Still, he expressedconfidence that indeed voice's day is coming.

When? Texas bank USAA has won splashy headlines for avoice-driven mobile app that it is developing with voicerecognition company Nuance in Burlington, Mass., for release inearly 2013, according to press statements.

But USAA is the outlier, said Ben Lilienthal, CEO of OneTok, aNew York company focused on adding voice to mobile apps, He notedthat voice is starting to catch on fast in some sectors such asproduct search at mobile shopping sites but banking has been slowerto commit. Still, said Lilienthal, voice in banking appearsto be inevitable.

“It will happen, probably in 12 to 24 months. Banks will beforced to because their customers will want it.”

Ditto for credit unions and their members. Ready or not, voiceis coming at you but exactly when, remains a large unknown.