A quick introduction into the world of doing KYC on video
Financial industry is becoming increasingly digitised and globally open. As a result, the demand for remote identification procedures is growing faster than ever. The goal is to make life easier for you and your customers.
However, while opening running your business globally is great, with this increased reach comes an increased risk of being targeted by fraudsters. There are a lot of scammers out there who are ready and willing to take advantage if they spot even the slightest vulnerability in your system.
Video identification, also known as video kyc or video verification, is a quick, convenient and incredibly secure method of verifying your customers identity online.
Having a secure video identification process in place makes it extremely difficult to commit any type of identity fraud. It is also a procedure that guarantees the highest level compliance.
Video identification can also be referred to as:
With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder that so many businesses are choosing to implement video identification security procedures.
video ident | video onboarding | video based kyc |
videoident | video-chat verification | KYC through video call |
video kyc or vkyc | video identity verification | video verification of identity |
Video KYC is widely used throughout the financial services sector by institutions ranging from banks and lenders to ICO’s and cryptocurrency providers.
An identity verification system based on video allows to maintain an excellent standard of trust and compliance, without compromising on user experience.
Identification procedures on live video are widely used throughout the financial services sector by institutions ranging from banks and lenders to ICO’s
An identity verification process based on video allows cryptocurrency providers to maintain an excellent standard of trust and compliance
The goal is to make life easier for you and your customers with no compromise on user experience.
You can, however keep in mind they might be easier to spoof. Because of that they don’t comply with higher level KYC and AML regulations.
Selfie to document checks are performed by having the user take a picture of their ID document and then a selfie. But it’s important to know that fraudsters get very creative. Sometimes cheating those solutions is as easy as scanning a printout of a photo instead of taking a selfie, using a pre-recorded video, or wearing a special mask.
These types of spoofing would never work on video, especially during a video identification procedure where a trained human verification specialist is present, and where everything is recorded and stored. It would simply look ridiculous.
The process begins with your customer filling in a registration form on your website (in the usual manner).
The details are then automatically sent to us at Fully-Verified.
At this point, a trained verification specialist will connect to your customer on live video. Using their smartphone or laptop, your customer will then be guided through our carefully designed identification process.
Your customer will be asked to provide relevant ID documents such as a national ID, driver’s license, or passport.
Customers will be asked to show both sides of identification documents where relevant, and also to tilt them in front of their camera to allow for holographic elements to be checked and verified.
Both the documents themselves and the ownership of the documents will be verified by specially trained staff who are not only trained to identify fake or invalid documents but who are also proficient in analysing human behaviour and body language.
In order to eliminate the possibility of human error in identifying and matching faces to documents, face recognition technology is also used, along with machine learning and AI to prevent fraud.
Once the ID documents and the user’s identity have been verified, they will then be sent back to your site with the verification status.
All video identifications are recorded and stored as an added security measure.
You might think that physical face to face identifications (the way it’s done in bank branches) is the most secure way to verify people’s identities, right?
Physical face to face identifications typically involve one person checking someone’s identity, often by looking at a tiny image on a passport or driver’s license.
The photograph being used could be in some cases as much as 10 years old. This means that the window for error is huge.
The level of scrutiny that that single employee is going to put into that identification is going to vary greatly depending on a variety of different factors.
Their mood and temperament play a role in the decision-making process, as does how busy they are, what other duties they have to perform, how good their eyesight is, the biases in regard to who they consider to be trustworthy, and the list goes on.
Compare that to our system that incorporates automated document scanning, live recorded video, automated face recognition and machine learning. All that technology is there to help our verification specialists who have been trained in fraud prevention and identity verification. And this is the only job they have to do. Verify people’s identities.
Let’s break these elements down a little:
Our system compared to physical face to face identifications incorporates automated document scanning, live recorded video, automated face recognition and machine learning.
As you can tell from the previous section, despite the name, video identification is not just about video! It’s actually a carefully designed process that incorporates a variety of different disciplines including criminal psychology and various automated analysis of both biometric features and document integrity.
It draws on the expertise of uniquely human skills (the ability to tell if someone is agitated or fearful for example). But the process also combines this expertise with the best that software, automation and machine learning have to offer.
Advantages For Your Company
Far superior than traditional identity verification solutions with automation software, machine learning and face recognition technology all happening on lived video.
Identity fraud can be extremely costly. Our process improves overall efficiency, saving you money and time.
Our process speeds up the onboarding process significantly, allowing you to process more applications and therefore increase revenue.
With our system you can rest assured that you’re meeting the necessary anti money laundering and know your customer requirements.
You can sleep well knowing that your business is fully protected from identity fraud.
All interactions are recorded and stored for your future reference.
No trips to the bank or post office! The process can be carried out from anywhere and at any time. All the customer needs is a smartphone, laptop or tablet equipped with a camera ant internet connection.
The process is quick and straightforward, providing a unique customer experience. Each identification is fully guided and takes approximately 5 to 7 minutes to complete.
Real-time processing means that your customers can get verified quicker than if they were using conventional methods.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the legislation that financial companies need to be aware of.
Understanding KYC (know your customer) requirements and implementing the necessary checks are an important aspect of onboarding new clients.
Previously used methods of identification involving taking pictures of documents and/or selfies are not compliant with the highest level of regulations.
The current AML legislation seems to view video as a far superior method for identity verifications.
Below is a list of European financial regulators who already implemented or are in the process of implementing video-based online identification procedures:
More and more countries are implementing systems that allow for video identification. The following is by no means an extensive list, but currently, the procedure is well established in the following European and non-European countries.
Some of the European members states not on this list are currently in the process of amending legislation to allow for the use of video identification, as are several countries outside of the EU. Acceptance and implementation of the process is growing and it’s only a matter of time before it spreads throughout the whole of Europe.
Fully-Verified was created as answer to its founders collectively losing over $150 000 to various types of fraud in their eCommerce businesses.