BANKINTER AND VODAFONE SPAIN LAUNCH THE FIRST BROKER ON-LINE WITH VOICE ACCESS THROUGH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Project developed in collaboration with Kirusa and Internet Systems

Madrid, 10 October, 2005: As a result of their collaboration agreement for the development of products and banking services through mobile devices, Bankinter and Vodafone Spain have launched the "Multimodal Broker" application, a first in the market. This is a "brokerage" application that allows stock exchange transactions –in real time- through the mobile telephone using voice commands.

The “Multimodal Broker” is a revolutionary system that expands the capabilities of the “Broker” application through the mobile telephone. The “Broker” application was launched by Bankinter and Vodafone Spain –also as pioneers– last January, and allowed the bank’s customers to be permanently connected to the markets and to operate in more than twenty national and international stock markets.

The new system allows speeding up the most frequent stock exchange transactions by just using your voice. Further, it offers the possibility of accessing all the functions through the keyboard. The operations currently available in the new “Multimodal Broker” include: stock price quotations, stock sale-purchase transactions in real time, alert registration, portfolio search, and order cancellations.

The multimodal technology refers to the use of multiple ways of interacting with the program in an integrated way from the mobile telephone. Specifically, besides the keyboard, the possibility of voice interaction is enabled. The voice is coded and sent to a server where it is processed and recognised.

Due to the above capabilities, this technology is especially useful for certain groups of handicapped people, such as blind people, who have obvious difficulties making stock investments through the mobile telephone using traditional procedures. From now on, with the easy and comfortable voice application, this disadvantage is reduced.

In developing the application, Bankinter and Vodafone Spain have collaborated with Kirusa, leading provider of multimodal solutions enabling mobile application delivery, and Internet Systems, an enterprise specialized in Internet and telecommunications technology, and a reseller of Kirusa’s multimodal solution in Spain. Many techniques of natural language recognition have been used in creating the application; these techniques allow identifying –without mistakes–, the voice commands from the user. The whole process is designed to guide the client through the operations, giving very detailed messages when he has no experience or more concise messages when he is an advanced user. 

How to operate the Multimodal Broker.

The improvement in usability and value of the service is evident. The client simply says what he wants to do, without the need to remember in which menu he will find the option to be used; and without the need of mandatory use of the keyboard. This way, if he wishes to search for the quotation of a specific stock, he can simply say “Bankinter quotation”, and in a few seconds the current quotation of the requested stock will be displayed on the screen of the mobile phone.

If what he wishes is to buy a specific stock from the market, he could indicate a complete command with all the necessary data for the order, for example. “Buy 20 shares of Bankinter from the market” or just “Buy Bankinter”. In this last case, the screen to start a Bankinter purchase from the market will be displayed. The system will request the missing data by voice in order to complete the transaction, with detailed and concrete steps.

About Bankinter

Bankinter is a multichannel bank, with many ways to develop the relationship and to operate financial transactions with their customers. It has been the first bank in Spain, to implement alternative channels like telephone, internet and now mobiles, and is the leader in each of these segments. Bankinter’s strenghts include the quality of service, innovative products, multiple channels, and its leading technology.

About Vodafone

Vodafone Spain, is part of the Vodafone Group, world wide leader in mobile services with representation in 27 countries, and agreements covering as additional 14 countries in all five continents. Vodafone offers a full range of mobile telecommunication services, including voice and data for more that 165 million customers around the world. Vodafone Spain, has more that 11.8 million customers, who can take advantage of the experience and capabilities of the leading mobile company. Due to its leadership position, Vodafone can help these customers – persons, business and communities- to better communicate in a mobile world.

About Kirusa

Kirusa is one of the leading global developers of Mobile Social Media and Value Added Services enabling mobile subscribers to reach out to their family and friends. Kirusa’s solutions include the hugely successful Kirusa Voice SMS service, the world’s most advanced Voice SMS solution, used by over 30 carriers around the world. Kirusa has pioneered a suite of social media applications that facilitate mobile subscribers to interact through voice, including the Call-n-Tweet application which helps users update their Twitter status using voice. Kirusa provides an open platform with APIs to enable third parties to offer mobile applications services to mobile subscribers. Used by mobile subscribers millions of times daily, Kirusa solutions are built on its patented and patent pending technology and its highly reliable and scalable open multimodal platform. Kirusa has been recognized as one of top 100 technology companies by Silicon India, and one of top 25 emerging technology companies by Smart Techie magazine. Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists, Kirusa has offices in three continents. ‘Kirusa Voice SMS,’ is a trademark of Kirusa, Inc.

For more information visit: www.kirusa.com.

Media Contacts

Kirusa
Navneet Anand
GreyMatters Communications
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