U.S. Bank’s Spanish-speaking customers can now access several functions in their mobile app by simply speaking to their smartphone.
U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB) is the first financial institution in the nation to offer customers the ability to speak Spanish to a mobile banking app. The bank has launched Asistente Inteligente de U.S. Bank, which offers the same features and functionality as its English-language version.
Customers who set their language preference to Spanish in the app will be able to check their balance and transactions, transfer and send money, make payments and complete other functions by speaking to their smartphone in Spanish. The app also supports text in Spanish.
U.S. Bank saw the addition of Spanish-speaking capabilities to its mobile app as a path to broader adoption of digital banking, says Richard Weeks, senior vice president and head of conversational experiences in the consumer digital office of U.S. Bank. Just as important is the goal of breaking down language barriers to improve access to wealth-building tools among diverse communities.
“We can’t be fully committed to helping diverse customers if we don’t offer the same level of service,” Weeks says. “The opportunity to actually engage using your voice is really unique within the industry, for input as well as output of the response. It democratizes information across a variety of abilities.”
Behind English, Spanish is the most spoken language in the U.S. More than 13% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish.
When it comes to digital banking, mobile devices play a larger role for Hispanic adults compared to their white or Black counterparts.
A quarter of Hispanics are “smartphone-only” internet users — meaning they own a smartphone, but do not have traditional home broadband services, according to a Pew Research Center survey. That is compared with just 12% of white adults and 17% of Black adults.
“Spanish speakers are much more smartphone-heavy users as their primary source of internet access,” Weeks says. “These are tools that they are very comfortable using, so we want to be there and be central to how they manage their financial lives.”
Service being available in Spanish is a high priority for customers speaking that language, second only to branch location, according to MRI-Simmons’ National Consumer Study.
U.S. Bancorp announced in September that it intends to acquire MUFG Union Bank in a deal valued at $8 billion. The combination would significantly increase U.S. Bank’s customer base in California, where more than 25% of the population speaks Spanish.
Weeks says the bank's commitment to developing technology that makes it easier for minority groups to work with it is part of U.S. Bank Access Commitment. That launched in 2021 to address how the bank serves racially diverse communities and to provide more opportunities for racially diverse employees. As part of that effort, U.S. Bank provided more than $197 million in capital to Black-owned or -led businesses and increased representation of Black individuals in the mortgage industry.
Asistente Inteligente was launched with the expertise of Spanish speakers. Hispanic employees in the U.S. Bank Nosotros Latinos Business Resource Group helped test the app’s functionality.
“We are always trying to design and build with — and not necessarily design for,” a particular group, Weeks says. “Those employees went back to make sure we were achieving the experience customers expected.”
Weeks says the technology also supports customers with low vision or with limited reading or writing skills who can more easily access their accounts.
Speaking to the app in Spanish or English helps banking customers who do not always know where to navigate within the digital platform to accomplish the desired task.
“If I am going on vacation in Europe, I might want to make sure my card is going to work when I get there,” Weeks says. “But the customer may not know to go to card management and then to travel. By simply stating to Smart Assistant that you want the card to work when you go to Europe ... the app will get users to the proper destination.”
U.S. Bank’s English-speaking version of the mobile app was released in July 2020. The full capability in Spanish will be available to customers by the end of May. Any U.S. Bank customer can toggle to the Spanish language indicator in their app to interact using the Spanish language.
“We have been thrilled with the adoption and utilization of our service,” Weeks says.
