10th  September 2007

Allied Irish Banks secures password renewal with VoiceVault

for over 5,700 staff to optimise IT helpdesk resources and reduce costs

London and New York, September 10th 2007 - VoiceVault a leader in voice-based biometric identity verification, today announced that Allied Irish Banks (AIB) is rolling out VoiceVault's Password Reset Service with initial implementation across head office locations. To-date, the Bank has enrolled more than 5,700 of its employees.

AIB's staff no longer need to speak to a service agent within the Bank's IT helpdesk to reset their system passwords. Instead, users of AIB IT systems speak a few words into the VoiceVault-powered system and these utterances are used to biometrically voice-verify the staff member's identity over the phone. Once verified, the user's password is automatically reset and spoken back to them. As well as being simple and quick to use, VoiceVault enhances password security (because it eliminates the human element) and substantially reduces the volume of IT helpdesk calls so that support teams can focus on other user issues.

Another key benefit to AIB is that the service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means that the bank's staff around the world can use the service at a time that is convenient for them..

Paul Lindsey, Executive Chairman of Biometric Security, says the banking group's use of voice biometrics is another example of its leadership in applying technology to real-world business challenges: "As largest domestic Irish bank group with global assets, AIB is a bank that seeks to use technology to gain competitive advantage and offer a better quality of service to its customers. We are delighted that AIB chose to implement VoiceVault and that both implementation and role out to its workforce has been completed so quickly. 

"Internal IT security is critically important to AIB and we're committed to implementing best practice in IT security across the group," said Niall Hearn, Executive Enterprise IT Services at AIB. "This means the process of resetting internal IT passwords must be secure, efficient and cost effective. VoiceVault met our security requirements, has proved easy for our staff to use and is reducing the volume of calls to our IT helpdesk by a significant margin."

AIB plans to further deploy this solution to another 15,000 staff across its head office, branch and capital markets staff. In addition, the bank is also exploring the use of the solution in Poland, which could potential expand usage to a further 10,000 staff and result in the total number of users reaching 25,000.

About VoiceVault

VoiceVault is a specialist and leader in the provision of voice-based biometric identity verification solutions and services. With operations in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, the company has a global customer base of public and private organizations, such as government agencies, banks and insurers. VoiceVault is the only voice verification service certified and accredited to issue Advanced Electronic Signatures (voice digital certificates) and to be ISO 27001 rated.

VoiceVault provides a more convenient, practical and secure alternative to PINs, passwords or security tokens. As well as verifying an individual's identity over the phone or the Internet, VoiceVault can be employed across a diverse range of business applications, including procurement, payment authorization and corporate security. Organizations that deploy VoiceVault can deliver enhanced levels of service to their customers, increase security while optimizing identity verification costs. For more information, visit   www.voicevault.com .

About Allied Irish Banks

Allied Irish Banks plc is an Irish registered company and its ordinary shares are quoted on the Irish Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol AIB). 

Formed in 1966, AIB was the product of the bringing together of three Irish banks, Provincial Bank, founded in 1825, The Royal Bank, established eleven years later, and The Munster and Leinster, the largest of the three banks with the most extensive branch network which was formed in 1885.