One of Europe’s most well-known challenger banks says it’s the first bank in the world to launch real-time, speech-to-speech translations within its banking app, leveraging the power of AI. So-called AI assistants are one of the latest battlegrounds amongst challenger banks and fintechs, as they look to outdo each other on the tech front.

In November, Danish challenger bank Lunar said its AI-powered voice assistant will handle around 75 per cent of customer calls over time. Klarna, meanwhile, stole a march on all its competitors by tub-thumping about its tie-up with Open AI, the firm behind ChatGPT.

Now, Dutch challenger bank Bunq, which has 14.5m users across Europe, claims to have the edge on rivals launching “real-time speech-to-speech translation” within its app. 

Ali Niknam, founder and CEO, Bunq, said: “At Bunq, we have always used technology to make life easy, and this update takes that to a new level.

“We’re excited to break down language barriers and simplify tedious tasks, making Bunq more accessible (and fun) to users all over the world.”

The move marks an upgrade to Bunq’s AI assistant, Finn, which it launched at the end of 2023.

According to Bunq, the assistant can now instantly translate the customer’s speech and the Bunq support assistant’s response in real-time, negating the need for external translation apps.

Bunq said the AI assistant can understand and process visual information in nearly 30 languages.

Bunq explains:

“They will be able to converse in their native language, with the Bunq app translating their voice and the responses of the Bunq support guide in real-time.

“Users will always be able to choose if they need real-time AI translation or talk to the support agent in English.”

In another upgrade, Bunq said customers can now upload receipts and documents directly into the app, and Finn will automatically process the information, including pre-filling invoice details and setting up payments in seconds.