Eastern Bank

Eastern Bank deployed Nuance's FreeSpeech voice biometrics technology in its telephone customer service call center in 2015, making it the first bank in North America to replace security-question authentication with passive voice recognition. When a customer calls 1-800-EASTERN, the system listens to their natural conversation and silently confirms their identity against a stored voiceprint.

The system uses Nuance's 'text-independent' voice biometrics, meaning it can authenticate a caller from any natural speech—not a fixed passphrase—during roughly 10–15 seconds of conversation with a call center agent. The AI compares the caller's voice to a unique voiceprint recorded at enrollment, then signals a green light to the agent when identity is confirmed. The system also cross-references voices across accounts to flag potential fraud, such as the same voice appearing on many unrelated accounts.

Eastern Bank operates Eastern Labs, an internal innovation unit that has tested and built data-driven technology products using the bank's customer data and digital assets. Eastern Labs developed the Express Business Loan platform and the voice biometrics project, and has explored AI, machine learning, and data science applications within the bank's operations.

Eastern Labs was publicly described in company sources and third-party reporting as having a mandate to create new data-driven technologies and potentially spin successful ones out into standalone companies. The lab has access to Eastern Bank's full data and digital assets. Job postings as recently as 2025 confirm Eastern Bank is actively building an Enterprise Data Platform on Microsoft Azure and hiring engineers to explore AI, machine learning, and data science capabilities. The specific AI systems currently in production at the lab beyond the Express Business Loan and Voice ID are not confirmed in available public sources.

Eastern Bank deployed an automated scorecard-based underwriting system for its Express Business Loan product, enabling small businesses in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to apply online and receive a credit decision in minutes or instantly. The system evaluates a fixed set of financial variables rather than requiring manual review for small-dollar loan applications.

According to American Banker reporting from 2016–2017, Eastern Bank built and tested the online lending platform through its Eastern Labs innovation unit before formally launching the Express Business Loan. The underwriting system uses a scorecard with a select number of variables—including the business owner's credit score, annual revenue, and industry characteristics—to make credit decisions automatically for loans up to $200,000. Eastern Bank also pursued licensing agreements with other regional banks to allow them to use the same technology platform.