Green Packet to pay $10M for biometrics provider Xendity as firms partner up for remote ID checks

Malaysian tech company Green Packet Berhad has acquired biometric eKYC specialist Xendity for $10 million to boost its identity verification capabilties, Fintech News Malaysia reports.

The Edge Markets reports that the move positions Green Packet to become a digital bank.

Xendity provides digital onboarding and user authentication with facial recognition and document scanning, and began participating in Bank Negara Malaysia’s e-KYC Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox since 2018. After exiting the sandbox, the seven banks Xendity worked with during the eKYC Sandbox process began using the company’s technology.

Green Packet also partnered with Tencent Cloud last month to integrate its facial recognition and machine learning capabilities to build an e-KYC solution optimized to the local market.

The deal involves Green Packet taking a 100 percent stake in Xendity in return for cash and shares paid out in three tranches, with the amount of the last dependent on key performance targets.

“The acquisition of Xendity forms a key part of our go market strategy with a solid e-KYC solution,” says Green Packet Group Managing Director and CEO Puan Chan Cheong.

“We have followed Xendity’s story closely and have been impressed with their achievements in the digital identity landscape. Although they are a new start-up company of about 3 years, their track record, experience, and capabilities as a main solution provider in the regulated e-KYC and ID management space should be applauded.”

Law firm launches remote biometric identification for transactions

Lightfoots LLP has launched a digital ID verification service leveraging facial recognition through a bespoke app provided by Nivo, which the law firm says is the first in the UK legal sector.

The free service will save clients time and inconvenience for conveyancing and other transactions requiring formal ID verification, with the remote verification process taking around 90 seconds to complete.

When clients contract Lightfoots, the firm emails an invitation to download the app, and step-by-step instructions are provided for the client to complete the process with an Onfido-developed ID document and selfie biometric check.

“We love working with companies like Lightfoots who demonstrate a real desire to embrace innovation and we’re proud to have helped them achieve this ‘legal first,’” comments Polly Taylor-Pullen, Nivo’s head of business development. “Our solution had been shown to speed up deals, improve customer experience, and reduce fraud, all while removing the friction involved in delivering regulated products.”

“Lenders and brokers are investing considerable time and money in developing slick digital processes for their customers and it’s important that when it comes to the legal sector’s input, we’re equally switched on,” states Joe Middleton, Lightfoots LLP managing partner.

iProov partnered with regtech firm NorthRow to bring remote biometrics to property transactions and other services earlier this month.

Nomidio supports 400 percent increase in Hitachi Capital remote ID verification

Demand for digital identity verification by Hitachi Capital increased by 400 percent in the first four weeks of the UK’s lockdown, Asset Finance International reports.

Nomidio began providing ID document and biometric checks for Hitachi Capital’s remote ID verification to secure business loans in April.

Hitachi Capital is a partner in the UK government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), and worked to stand up a fast remote application process.

“When it became clear we would need to support UK businesses incredibly quickly, at scale, as a partner in the CBILS we knew we needed a digital way to validate applicant identity for the vast majority of our business, which is handled in-directly via partners,” Hitachi Capital (UK) Head of Marketing and Insight for Business Finance Jo Morris says. “The decision was taken to roll-out Nomidio across the entire business in March and we did it in just 24 hours.”

“For our customers, being able to prove their identity from their own home, quickly and easily is important – particularly now. If we hadn’t already worked closely with Nomidio to build this cloud service we would have been racing to try and find a solution,” Morris adds.

“We’ve actually worked with Hitachi Capital for 18 months as we designed, tested and iterated the Nomidio identity service, so we know it’s robust, we know it meets security, privacy and compliance requirements,” Nomidio Commercial Director Philip Black comments. “We’re pleased to have played a small but important part in helping people across the UK to continue to access finance from Hitachi Capital, who are doing a great job at continuing to provide a vital service for the nation.”

GBG partners with CredoLab for digital behavior checks

CredoLab’s smartphone metadata risk-assessment technology is being integrated by GBG under a new partnership to assess the creditworthiness of loan and new account applicants, even if they are underbanked or unbanked, writes Taiwan News.

The partnership is intended to help both brick-and-mortar and digital banks leverage the digital footprints of mobile phones to process banking and credit applications.

Only 104 million out of the 400 million adults in Southeast Asia have full access to financial services, according to the report.

By assimilating metadata on consumers’ digital footprint and behavioral intelligence into GBG Instinct digital fraud management platform, we are seeing an uplift in credit and fraud risk protection by up to 40 percent. This convergence between mobile credit scoring and digital fraud technology helps established and digital banks and lenders onboard quality customers within the financially excluded population,” says GBG Managing Director of APAC June Lee.

GBG subsidiary IDology was recently tapped by fintech Hydrogen to supply its platform for KYC and digital fraud checks.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  Green Packet  |  identity document  |  identity verification  |  KYC  |  Nivo  |  Nomidio  |  Onfido  |  secure transactions  |  Xendity