How to choose the right KYC provider

Finding the right supplier for any organisation is a challenge as there are many providers available on both a national and global level. Providers of KYC, KYB and AML solutions use both traditional and modern measures, but how do you know which one to choose?

In this article we explain what you need to look for in order to choose the right provider…

 To verify identity, when opening an account (bank, financial service, cryptocurrency, gaming, or otherwise) things like personal information, a valid government-issued ID, and biometric data can be taken, and matched to other relevant data, in order to authenticate an individual.

This helps banks and companies to meet KYC and AML regulations and reduce fraud.

These are the key elements to consider:

Service coverage 

Companies operating globally should seek a KYC provider that provides service coverage across the world, in all relevant countries.

Service providers should be able to offer their service in key regions of the planet in order to attract global companies, with KYC that adheres to specific jurisdictions, and can offer favourable pass rates in remote countries or specific territories, if relevant to the bank or company.

In other words, your KYC provider should not be good just for one or several countries, it should be truly international.

Document and language coverage

It’s not just about global coverage alone, but with that, being able to cover official documentation used in all relevant countries across the globe, and to be able to verify any national identity or local government document in their corresponding language and format, in order to be truly global.  

There are thousands of national identity documents worldwide, and if any can’t be verified, that can means lost customers, and lost revenue.

Document verification also has to be country sensitive, in terms of formats or differences. A simple example being to recognise American documents, in date terms, to read the month as the first number shown, while in the UK, the first number shown in a date to be recognised as the day (followed by month) etc.

There are myriad differences in document type, and how visual and electronic data is presented or stored, so your KYC provider needs to be able to read any document with accuracy.

Compliant with regulations

Identity Verification providers should have solutions that comply with the core requirements of all global and domestic regulations. This ensures that a KYC provider offers a full service and can offer long-term support as regulations evolve, and that they understand the importance of global and domestic Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering regulations and cater to them in order to be a one-stop-shop for companies, and not just a partial solution.

Practices in-line with regulations

Identity Verification companies deal in PII data, in order to perform diligence measures required by global KYC and AML directives. KYC providers should have measures and practices employed that are derived from these regulations.

The EU based GDPR, for example, ensure secure and responsible practices in data handling requests on behalf of companies, empowering EU citizens in the process.

Technology usage and effectiveness

Not all KYC providers are the same, nor do they utilise technologies equally. You should assess whether KYC providers incorporate the necessary level of technology to be at par with (or beyond) industry standards and requirements.

Are the KYC providers using dated practices or are they using automated AI based functioning?

What are their verification timings? Can they verify in timescales that suit your customers who are looking for instant access?

And what is their verification process? Can it fit in seamlessly with the customer journey, in order to remove friction within KYC, or does it act as a barrier in any way?

Multiple Data Sources Is Key

When validating identities, providers must check a variety of data sources to produce a match. The reason for this is that different data points and databases will provide different information about a person. An identity verification platform should be able to correlate across multiple data sources, and do so quickly, in order to produce an accurate and certain match, and do so quickly.

Conclusion

The employment of a KYC provider is a priority for companies with due diligence requirements. External providers help save time and resources for companies, and work on streamlining onboardings while mitigating threats.

Companies should consider a KYC provider that includes most if not all of the elements listed above, to ensure greater business growth as well as compliance with relevant regulations in play or forthcoming.

How we can help

At Acuant we offer KYC that satisfies all of the above requirements. We currently cover 177+ countries, and offer identity verification in countries where others can’t, and where traditional methods simply don’t work. Beyond that we offer higher pass rates than others in remote countries such as Bermuda, which other providers simply don’t have the technology to cater for.

In terms of document coverage, our solution iDocufy can verify any government-issued ID, from any country in the world. And it uses AI to read all visual and electronic data. There isn’t a single document it hasn’t been able to verify.

And our best-in-class facial authentication tool BioMatch uses blink for liveness test, and offers the highest level of security possible.  

Our digital and real-time solutions allow companies to meet current and forthcoming regulations, such as LCCP, PSD2, and 5AMLD. Indeed, these regulations have actively promoted the use of digital automated tools, the very ones we offer, to comply with regulation and offer customers the best experience.

We offer the quickest verification we know of, through social authentication, which means you can verify anyone in the world in seconds using Acuant Identity’s Alternative and Social Data.

This can be used along with our other solutions for multi-factor authentication, all done in real-time, to allow customers to onboard instantly. And by offering UtilityConnect we allow customers to verify their address using live utility data, which is faster and safer and more accurate than slow traditional methods.

Finally, by using all available data from a customer’s digital footprint, along with document and biometric data, and direct-from-source utility data, we offer KYC that can access and use more data points and data sources than anyone else.