BankID Safe Conversation: Secure caller verification, without security questions
With the BankID Safe Conversation feature (BankID "Sikker Samtale"), your call centre can securely identify Norwegian customers during a phone call using BankID, removing the need for lengthy security questions.
"Can you confirm your date of birth?"
"What is your address?"
"Can you tell me the last four digits of your account number?"
If you're running a call center operation, these questions are probably a familiar part of every call. Before an agent can help a customer, they first need to verify who they're speaking with.
The problem is that security questions are slow, frustrating, and increasingly vulnerable to fraud. Customers have to share sensitive personal information over the phone, while agents spend valuable time working through lengthy verification processes, driving up call handling times. And because the answers rely on knowledge the customer already has, they can also be known, guessed, or obtained by fraudsters, making knowledge-based verification increasingly difficult to trust.
There is a better way.
Introducing BankID Safe Conversation (Sikker Samtale) for Norway
Image: BankID
Norway's most widely used electronic ID, BankID has introduced BankID Safe Conversation (BankID Sikker Samtale). It allows organisations to securely identify Norwegian customers during a phone call using their BankID.
Instead of answering security questions, customers receive a notification in their BankID app and verify their identity using biometrics such as Face ID or fingerprint authentication. Once verified, the agent can be confident they are speaking to the right person.
The verification can happen already while the customer is waiting in the call queue making the identity verification process fast, automated, and secure.
Where can BankID Safe Conversation be used?
BankID Safe Conversation can help verify customers before call center agents discuss sensitive information or carry out high-risk transactions. Common use cases include:
- Banking: Verify customers before discussing account information, making payment transfers, or replacing or cancelling cards.
- Insurance: Secure conversations involving sensitive claims information or changes to payment details.
- Employee services: Protect sensitive employee information, such as payroll and salary details.
- Telecom: Verify customers before processing requests such as SIM replacements, helping reduce the risk of SIM swap fraud
How it works
The process is straightforward:
- The customer calls your customer service centre.
- They choose BankID verification as an option from the call menu while waiting in the queue . Alternately, the agent can initiate the verification.
- A verification request is sent to the customer's BankID app.
- An automated voice (or the call center agent) reads out “challenge words” and the customer confirms the words in their BankID app.
- The customer confirms their identity using biometric authentication such as Face ID or fingerprint.
- The agent receives confirmation that the customer has been securely identified.
Organisations can integrate it into their call center IVR/phone systems. This ensures verification can take place while the customer is waiting in the queue, so the they are already identified before the agent answers the call. Organisations can also set it up so the verification is initiated by a call center agent during the call.
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Traditional security questions rely on information that may be known, guessed, or obtained through social engineering.
BankID Safe Conversation uses the same trusted BankID infrastructure and biometric authentication that millions of Norwegians already rely on for secure digital services.
This provides a higher level of assurance that the person on the phone is genuinely who they claim to be.
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Customer service teams often spend valuable time verifying identities before they can address the customer's issue.
According to BankID, customer identification can take between 1-1.5 minutes during a typical call. One large Norwegian bank reported saving 1 minute per conversation by using BankID Safe Conversation.
The result is shorter calls, more efficient agents, and lower operational costs.
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Nobody likes being asked a long list of security questions.
With BankID Safe Conversation, customers simply approve a request in the BankID app they already use and trust. With more than 4.6 million active users and 99% of Norwegians already using BankID, the experience is familiar, fast and convenient.
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As customer expectations evolve, organisations need digital-first ways to verify identity across channels.
BankID Safe Conversation helps modernise customer service operations by replacing manual verification processes with secure digital identity verification.
Available through Signicat
Signicat offers the BankID Safe Conversation feature as part of its Norwegian BankID offering, helping organisations integrate secure identity verification into customer service journeys.
Whether you are looking to improve customer experience, reduce handling times, strengthen fraud prevention, or all three, BankID Safe Conversation provides a modern alternative to traditional security questions.
The next time a customer calls, imagine starting the conversation with their problem instead of their postcode.
That's the difference BankID Safe Conversation can make.