The capabilities of financial applications have been surging with technological advancements like the eKYC. Now the complexity of financial solutions has given rise to many interesting and fascinating digital applications that make it easier for people to get onboard. eKYC is such an application that is derivative of the contributions of AI in fintech.
Figure: Capabilities of eKYC
Know Your Customer, better known as KYC, is a mandatory customer onboarding process for banks and financial institutions to know about their clients’ identities, their information and verify them accordingly. And what the eKYC does is bringing the whole pen & paper formalities to the digital platform; allowing anyone with computer device or a smart phone to sign up seamlessly.
Before eKYC, the traditional bank account opening formalities were paper-based and often took more than one day. And being paper-based, it was very difficult to verify and validate new customers. Hence, no single individual could open a new account at the same time they have submitted all required information.
Workings of eKYC
Figure: Process of eKYC
NID Data Collection & Verification
OCR- For collecting NID data we have developed an optical character recognition feature, or OCR. Our OCR can validate real NID images like smart-card NID, old NID, as well as downloaded NID from Election Commission. In this step customer provide us their NID’s front image and back image, where the OCR will read the data from those images in both English and Bangla.
NID Data Validation- In these steps we verify OCR generated data by comparing it with Election Commission data. Bangladesh Bank already provided guideline the matching percentage to verify the NID data.
Biometric Verification
Face Verification- Face verification has been completed in multiple step verification. Initially we verify the liveliness of customer image. This is done through the means of Amazon Rekognition, a machine learning solution from AWS. Liveliness verification is done by customer eye blinking as well as paling customer eye in a predefined rectangular box. If liveliness check verifies, then we verify customer image with NID image data.
Fingerprint Verification- For further assistance, fingerprint verification can provide a faster and more accurate way to validate customer identity. We directly verify the customer fingerprint with Election Commission customer fingerprint.
Security Measures
OAuth2- We have implemented standard renowned OAuth2 protocol to secure all calls between mobile application and internal bank services.
Data Encryption- All stored sensitive data are encrypted, securing the database only for the involved users.
Forgery Detection- If any data is forged with paper patches or using Photoshop, the eKYC security protocols will detect such forgeries. This scenario is valid when we have no Election commission API to validate.
Face spoofing- Fraudsters can acquire photos and videos on the internet, and even model 2D or 3D face models of the authorized user to bypass security. The eKYC security measures take on both 2D and 3D photos and cross reference it among different faces, as a result only the authorized users are accepted in the system.
Why opt for an eKYC solution?
The question of asking “will an eKYC system will do us any good?” will soon be redundant sometime in the future, thanks to rapid technological advancements. And such advancements will give rise to new norms that all sorts of industries have to adopt. According to the Fintech Magazine, AI in fintech is playing a crucial role in collecting data, analyzing information, safeguarding and facilitating transactions, creating customer-centric products, and streamlining processes. The once negative stigma against AI has been turned over as recent advancements in AI and machine learning are simplifying the complex processes of banking and financial services.
Now eKYC has introduced the fastest customer onboarding process for banks and financial institutions. The digital nature of the eKYC has reduced to paper-based KYC system to a few simple steps. It is very easy to identity and verify customer authenticity by digitally biometric verification. Thus, creating real time customer onboarding and account opening. This helps financial organizations to increase their business greatly, as the conversion time for leads to customers has been shaven off greatly! And the data stored in the secured database is updated automatically with each change in policy or services. Now these financial organizations can streamline their services and cater to their numerous clients individually.
So, if you’re from a bank and financial institution, our eKYC solution is maybe the solution that you were looking for to expand your business. Or you are someone who is just interested in what eKYC brings to the table. But I hope reaching all the way here has piqued your interest in how fintech is going to evolve in the next coming years, and what do you have to do to stay on top of your (financial services) game. Contact us at Brain Station 23 to see if we have the answer to your technological needs!