Telephone banking is a service provided by a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

or other

financial institution A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...

that enables

customers In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product, or an idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or an e ...

to perform over the

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

a range of financial transactions that do not involve cash or financial instruments (such as checks) without the need to visit a bank branch or ATM.

History

Telephone banking became commercially available in the 1980s, first introduced by Girobank in the United Kingdom, which established a dedicated telephone banking service in 1984. Telephone banking saw growth during the 1980s and early 1990s and was heavily used by the first generation of direct banks. However, the development of online banking in the early 2000s started a long-term decline in the use of telephone banking in favor of internet banking. The advent of mobile banking further eroded the use of telephone banking in the 2010s.

Operation

To use a financial institution's telephone banking facility, a customer must first register with the institution for the service. They would be assigned a customer number (which is not the same as the account number), and they may be given or set up their own

password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...

(under various names) for customer verification. Customers would call the special phone number set up by the bank and authenticate their identity through the customer number, a numeric or verbal password, or security questions asked by a live representative. The service can be provided using an automated system, using voice recognition capability, DTMF technology, or by live

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those who buy or use its products or services, either in person or remotely. Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm, and ...

representatives. In

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, a variation of telephone banking utilizing missed call numbers assigned to specific tasks (such as checking balances or performing money transfers) is offered by major banks.

References

{{reflist Banking

Banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

Banking technology British inventions

History

Operation

See also

References