Remote onboarding and digital banking has grown dramatically in recent years, and the sector is only set to develop further – market size is projected to surge from USD 8.4 billion in 2021 to USD 19.2 billion by 2028, forecasting a healthy compound annual growth rate of 14.80%.
With this rise in remote onboarding, financial institutions are seeking innovative ways to improve their new customer acquisition strategies while ensuring they are compliant with relevant regulations.
It has therefore become increasingly important for banks and credit unions to ensure that their customers’ identities are genuine and that customers can lawfully use (and are lawfully using) the services offered by the financial institution. The use of biometric identity verification and eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer) checks have become essential, as they enhance security while simplifying the end user’s journey.
To meet this evolving requirement, Entrust and iProov – two industry leaders in digital identity verification and authentication – have partnered to deliver biometric identity verification and eKYC checks in one powerful, end-to-end solution. This solution revolutionizes how banks and credit unions onboard new users, ensuring a fast, secure, and user-friendly experience for customers and financial organizations alike.
What is Biometric Identity Verification and How Does It Work?
Biometric identity verification is a process of identifying individuals based on their unique biological characteristics, such as fingerprints, face verification, voice recognition, or iris scanning. It is a highly reliable and secure way to verify a person’s identity, and it minimizes or eliminates the need for passwords or conventional authentication methods, which are more easily hacked or stolen.
iProov’s patented biometric solutions suite assures that an online customer is the right person (and not an impostor), the real person (not a spoof), and is authenticating right now (using a one-time biometric). iProov’s science-based biometrics use computer vision technology to detect the genuine presence of a living user. A one-time biometric code tells the device to illuminate the individual’s face with an unpredictable sequence of colors to establish real-time authenticity. The challenge-response mechanism is randomized, making the authentication process unpredictable, impervious to replay attacks, and highly challenging to reverse-engineer.
This helps organizations to verify that someone is who they claim to be, rather than a representation such as a photograph or a mask or a generative-AI-based spoof like a synthetic identity. The solution also analyzes multidimensional information derived from facial behavior as well as other contextual data for comprehensive identity assurance and identity fraud risk mitigation.
iProov has been successfully deployed by top governments and financial institutions around the world to verify the identity of their users. The technology ensures that the person presenting themselves for identity verification is genuine, physically present, and not a photo, video, screen replay, or digitally injected attack.
What are eKYC Checks and How Do They Work?
eKYC checks are a digital alternative to the traditional KYC process, which is required by regulatory bodies to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illegal activities. eKYC allows customers to open accounts remotely without the need for physical paperwork or in-person interactions. It’s the most effective way to speed up the onboarding process and improve customer and member satisfaction right out of the gate.
Entrust’s identity solutions portfolio combined with iProov offers identity verification and eKYC services to financial institutions for account opening. It integrates iProov’s biometric solutions suite to provide a seamless and secure onboarding experience. Customers can use their smartphones to capture their biometric data, take a selfie, scan a government-issued ID, and submit the information for verification. The technology can process thousands of identity verifications in minutes, reducing the time and costs associated with manual identity checks.
What Are the Benefits of Combining Biometric Identity Verification With eKYC?
By incorporating biometric verification into eKYC processes, banks and credit unions can reduce the risk of onboarding illegitimate users with stolen or synthetic identities.
Additionally, eKYC checks enhanced with biometric technology have proven to be more efficient – McKinsey says that the potential cost reduction in onboarding costs by using digital-enabled processes is 90%, and If a digital onboarding process takes longer than 20 minutes, 70% of customers completely abandon account opening their attempt to open an account.
Ultimately the benefits of using biometric identity verification and eKYC checks include, but are not limited to:
- Faster, more convenient, and more secure onboarding experience for customers and members.
- Support for compliance and regulatory requirements.
- Reduced risk of both synthetic and stolen identity fraud, as well as data breaches, which can be costly for financial institutions and damaging to their reputation.
The Next Step In Customer Experience: Digital Payment Card Issuance
A critical objective of this joint solution is creating an effortless experience for users, from beginning to end.
Following this, it’s important to prioritize delivering value to customers and members as soon as their account is created. One of the most meaningful milestones is debit card issuance, which provides customers with purchasing power and access to their newly deposited funds. Streamlining the issuance of digital payment cards as a part of the account opening process creates a seamless and valuable experience. By linking the onboarding process with the instant issuance of digital payment cards, banks, and credit unions can provide a seamless and convenient experience for their customers and members.
This innovation in digital payment card issuance is part of the joint solution and is particularly valuable because it eliminates the need for physical cards and the delays associated with postal delivery. Customers can start using their new accounts immediately, contributing to a more satisfying onboarding experience.
This enhanced digital payments experience not only drives accelerated time to value, with a rich set of spend enablement tools, but it also provides a more secure payment experience with real-time card controls and alerts. The integrated experience – all housed in a single application – drives a safer, simpler, more valuable end-user experience while removing much of the complexity from the implementation and ongoing maintenance of the technology.
iProov and Entrust Solution: Summary
The partnership between Entrust and iProov is a game-changer for the banking industry. It offers a cutting-edge solution that combines biometric identity verification and eKYC checks to provide a secure and user-friendly onboarding experience for both customers and financial institutions. As digital banking continues to grow, this technology will become increasingly important for financial institutions to stay ahead of the curve and provide their end users with the best possible service
