Alfa-Bank integrates Smart Engines OCR into banking app

Alfa-Bank has integrated Smart Engines computer-vision document scanning capabilities into its mobile banking app enabling customers to now update their ID documents remotely, which both companies say eliminates the need to visit an office to perform the task.

Clients can update their ID documents on record with the bank by opening the Alfa-Bank app and placing a new ID card in front of the smartphone camera. Real-time optical character recognition (OCR) is done using the video stream of the smartphone’s camera, after which the user confirms the data which is then sent to the bank’s system.

Smart Engines CEO Vladimir Arlazarov says the app is secure and protects user data because, “external services come between the client and the bank.” Arlazarov adds that the technology does not require high-performance computing power and works even on low-end mobile devices.

Damir Battulin, senior vice president, head, online development department at Alfa-Bank comments, “Previously, the customer had to visit the bank’s office for any banking service. Now almost any service is remotely available, and even, for example, the ID data can be updated in the bank’s mobile application on the same day as your new document was issued.”

Smart Engines previously collaborated with Raiffeisenbank for an Android mobile app that performs financial activities with a QR code. It also found various customers for its ID scanning service in 2021, from commercial real estate giant CBRE in Russia, automatic credit card scanning for Kazakh Super App Kaspi.kz, and integration into Czech fintech company Cashbot for Czech ID cards.

The growth of its products last year led to 113 million instances of scans and native digital document processing for businesses, and a 26 percent customer growth base from 2020.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  computer vision  |  document reader  |  financial services  |  mobile app  |  mobile banking  |  OCR  |  Smart Engines