Anyone who has ever tried to conduct a private phone conversation about a personal banking matter while sitting in a cube farm at work can appreciate a new service from Canadian bank Tangerine.

According to a press release from the bank, its new Tangerine Secure Chat lets customers engage with a bank associate in an online chat about confidential banking matters that previously required said phone conversation.

This in itself is not novel — even at Tangerine — but the ability to conduct banking transactions within the chat is, and Tangerine says it's the first Canadian bank to offer the feature.

"Whether you want to become a new client or access your hard earned money, it's never been a better time to be a Tangerine client," said Peter Aceto, president and CEO of Tangerine. "We are very proud to be the first bank in Canada to have the technology in place to offer this secure chat feature."

Tangerine Secure Chat uses technology from Genesys, a provider of omnichannel customer experience and contact center solutions. The service operates (in both English and French) on a customized platform that the bank built in partnership with IBM.

Currently the new secure chat service is available only on the Tangerine website, but it will soon be incorporated into the bank's mobile banking app, where it will operate in the same way.

"[W]e know that chat features are the future when it comes to convenience and preference," IBM Canada CTO Charbel Safadi said in the release. "We're excited to be working with Tangerine, who continues to drive financial service innovation by offering a secure chat technology and exposing it to multiple channels ... to further enhance digital engagement and convenience for Tangerine clients."