Project developed in collaboration with Kirusa and Internet Systems

Madrid, 10 October, 2005. As a result of their collaboration agreement for the development of products and banking services through mobile devices, Bankinter and Vodafone Spain have launched the "Multimodal Broker" application, a first in the market. This is a "brokerage" application that allows stock exchange transactions –in real time- through the mobile telephone using voice commands.

The “Multimodal Broker” is a revolutionary system that expands the capabilities of the “Broker” application through the mobile telephone. The “Broker” application was launched by Bankinter and Vodafone Spain –also as pioneers– last January, and allowed the bank’s customers to be permanently connected to the markets and to operate in more than twenty national and international stock markets.

The new system allows speeding up the most frequent stock exchange transactions by just using your voice. Further, it offers the possibility of accessing all the functions through the keyboard. The operations currently available in the new “Multimodal Broker” include: stock price quotations, stock sale-purchase transactions in real time, alert registration, portfolio search, and order cancellations.

The multimodal technology refers to the use of multiple ways of interacting with the program in an integrated way from the mobile telephone. Specifically, besides the keyboard, the possibility of voice interaction is enabled. The voice is coded and sent to a server where it is processed and recognised.

Due to the above capabilities, this technology is especially useful for certain groups of handicapped people, such as blind people, who have obvious difficulties making stock investments through the mobile telephone using traditional procedures. From now on, with the easy and comfortable voice application, this disadvantage is reduced.

In developing the application, Bankinter and Vodafone Spain have collaborated with Kirusa, leading provider of multimodal solutions enabling mobile application delivery, and Internet Systems, an enterprise specialized in Internet and telecommunications technology, and a reseller of Kirusa’s multimodal solution in Spain. Many techniques of natural language recognition have been used in creating the application; these techniques allow identifying –without mistakes–, the voice commands from the user. The whole process is designed to guide the client through the operations, giving very detailed messages when he has no experience or more concise messages when he is an advanced user.

How to operate the Multimodal Broker.

The improvement in usability and value of the service is evident. The client simply says what he wants to do, without the need to remember in which menu he will find the option to be used; and without the need of mandatory use of the keyboard. This way, if he wishes to search for the quotation of a specific stock, he can simply say “Bankinter quotation”, and in a few seconds the current quotation of the requested stock will be displayed on the screen of the mobile phone.

If what he wishes is to buy a specific stock from the market, he could indicate a complete command with all the necessary data for the order, for example. “Buy 20 shares of Bankinter from the market” or just “Buy Bankinter”. In this last case, the screen to start a Bankinter purchase from the market will be displayed. The system will request the missing data by voice in order to complete the transaction, with detailed and concrete steps.

About Bankinter
Bankinter is a multichannel bank, with many ways to develop the relationship and to operate financial transactions with their customers. It has been the first bank in Spain, to implement alternative channels like telephone, internet and now mobiles, and is the leader in each of these segments. Bankinter’s strenghts include the quality of service, innovative products, multiple channels, and its leading technology.

About Vodafone
Vodafone Spain, is part of the Vodafone Group, world wide leader in mobile services with representation in 27 countries, and agreements covering as additional 14 countries in all five continents. Vodafone offers a full range of mobile telecommunication services, including voice and data for more that 165 million customers around the world. Vodafone Spain, has more that 11.8 million customers, who can take advantage of the experience and capabilities of the leading mobile company. Due to its leadership position, Vodafone can help these customers – persons, business and communities- to better communicate in a mobile world.

Media Contact:
Blanca Hernanz, Director of External Communications, Bankinter, Tel: +34 91 339 79 45, bhernanz@bankinter.es
Gonzalo García, External Communications, Bankinter, Tel: + 34 91 339 78 55, ggarciar@bankinter.es
Carmen de Alvear, External Comunications, Vodafone Spain, Tel: + 34 607 133 455, gabinetedeprensa@vodafone.com
Nayra del Río, Grupo Quator, Tel: + 34 607 133 849

Original release in Spanish. Unofficial Translation to English

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