Telephone banking

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Telephone banking is a service provided by a financial institution which allows its customers to perform transactions over the telephone.

Most telephone banking use an interactive voice response (IVR). To guarantee security, the customer must first authenticate through a numeric or verbal password or through security questions asked by a live representative (see below). With the obvious exception of cash withdrawals and deposits, it offers virtually all the features of an automated teller machine: account balance information and list of latest transactions, electronic bill payments, funds transfers between a customer's accounts, etc.

Usually, there is also the possibility to speak to a live representative located in a call centre or a branch, although this feature is not guaranteed to be offered 24/7. In addition to the self-service transactions listed earlier, telephone banking representatives are usually trained to do what was traditionally available only at the branch: loan applications, investment purchases and redemptions, chequebook orders, debit card replacements, change of address, etc.

Banks which operate mostly or exclusively by telephone are known as phone banks.