Can you pay me now? Banks try out voice-recognition technology

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is joining a growing list of financial institutions testing voice-recognition technology that would allow customers to one day interact with their bank through their mobile device.

Wells Fargo is fine-tuning its app that responds to vocal commands before launching it to its 12 million mobile banking customers, the Charlotte Observer reports. The bank tested the technology with a group of its employees over the summer.

Mobile technology represents a substantial part of the banking industry, and financial institutions are looking for innovative ways to capitalize on the growing mobile customer base.

U.S. Bankcorp, the corporate parent of U.S. Bank, has developed a new voice recognition app that lets customers conduct basic banking tasks by speaking requests, like “check balance” and “transfer funds”, into their mobile device. The app was developed with Nuance, which sells mobile voice recognition software, according to American Banker.