Bank of Valletta widening accessibility to financial services

Bank of Valletta has announced that one in every four of its ATMs is now equipped with voice technology and easily accessible by the visually impaired.

A series of audio instructions, delivered through headphones, guide the user through various steps to carry out the transaction -- be it withdrawing money, checking balances or the wide variety of services available from the Bank’s latest Advanced Deposit ATMs. Moreover, when the audio instructions are activated, the ATM screen goes blank thereby safeguarding the privacy of the customer from onlookers.

“Bank of Valletta has always been a leader in harnessing the latest technology to provide improved customer experience for its customers,” said Ray Azzopardi, Executive Head IT Services at Bank of Valletta.

“The Bank is currently in the process of upgrading its standard ATMs with Advanced Deposit ATMs that offer customers important benefits including real-time cash and cheque deposit features. The speech output available on the Advanced Deposit ATMs extends the benefits of these ATMs to people with reading difficulties or visual impairment, ensuring that they too have complete access to the full range of benefits of self-service banking, without forcing them to become dependent on third party assistance.”

In addition, Azzopardi mentioned that the Bank is also providing a specially designed BOV Internet Banking SecureKey free of charge to people with sight problems, enabling them to benefit from the full security feature of this device. This SecureKey generates the PIN in the normal manner, but reads it out to the user.

“The introduction of the Bank’s Advanced Deposit ATMs speech functionality and the BOV Internet Banking SecureKey are important initiatives undertaken by the Bank. Not only was Bank of Valletta the first financial services provider to offer real-time self-service banking to its customers, but it is also taking effective steps to ensure that these benefits are available to the broadest cross-section of the community,” concluded Azzopardi.