Selfie biometrics deployed from banking to auto sales, legal sector urged to follow suit

Innovatrics, Onfido, and iDenfy have each won new clients for their selfie biometrics and document verification technologies. Similarly, a dating app offers heightened security options, a UK regulator challenges ‘lingering myths’ about digital identity checks, and Brazil’s digital wallet enables vehicle sales with face biometrics checks.

Innovatrics, Onfido, and iDenfy sign new clients

Innovatrics, Onfido, and iDenfy have formed partnerships with clients in banking, gaming, and blockchain payments respectively to integrate their selfie biometrics for digital identity verification during remote onboarding.

Innovatrics will work with 365.bank to verify customers and perform KYC and AML processes with the Digital Onboarding Toolkit (DOT), the company’s AI-powered digital identity verification technology. DOT enables 365.bank customers to sign up by scanning their government issued ID and uploading a selfie. DOT will then compare the ID to the selfie with face biometrics and liveness detection to verify that it is the legitimate owner who is present.

Daniel Ferak, director of DOT Business Unit at Innovatrics, comments, “We’re delighted to support 365.bank with digital identity verification, enhancing their customer experience, operational efficiency, and fraud prevention. Innovatrics’ technology brings instant trust to digital transactions and we understand that great UX is a non-negotiable for 365.bank. With DOT’s auto-capture technology, real-time user feedback, and industry-leading biometrics, users can go from stranger to customer in minutes”.

Onfido will offer its age verification service achieved with a government-issued ID and a facial biometric selfie to Indian online gaming company Games24x7 as a form of KYC.

“In today’s digital age, gamers increasingly expect a user-friendly experience while knowing it is safe and secure,” says Harvinder Singh, GM of APAC at Onfido. “Onfido’s award-winning machine learning models can identify any aberration attempts in real time, enabling Games24x7 to onboard legitimate players seamlessly. This helps build user trust and safety online while meeting KYC and AML regulations.”

The company has also released a statement on the war in Ukraine, announcing free ID verification for Global Giving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund. Onfido is also suspending new sales of its product in the regions sanctioned during the conflict, geo-blocking of identity checks for applications coming from the sanctioned regions for new customers and geo-blocking support assistance for existing customers, and waiving fees for Ukrainian customers.

Confirmo, a blockchain payment provider behind Coinmate, says it chose iDenfy for identity verification and fraud detection due to rising numbers of fraud and scammers. Confirmo adds that iDenfy has already improved customer onboarding as it performs the administration process and can verify customers in multiple languages, which is an advantage no other service provided.

Dan Houska, CEO of Confirmo, says, “We’re delighted to work with iDenfy. Previously, we struggled with a longer identity verification process. I’m glad that due to this partnership, the service now is user-friendly and offers a higher proportion of successfully completed verifications.”

Dating app seeks to stop scams with identity verification

A dating app for college students and young adults looks to stop scams that thrive on such platforms and create a safer environment for people seeking romance through biometrics and security features.

Blyss Dating, an app created by university students Hunter Hanley and Stanford Maison, says it will enforce mandatory facial recognition to prevent ‘catfishing’ – the creation of a false online identity to lure in people. The app also features a ‘trusted friend’ feature that allows users to contact a trusted individual about their location, and a ‘safe-word’ feature that can activate real-time support by the Blyss team in case of emergency.

UK regulators back digital ID check efforts

British regulators say that legal services regulations do not ban the use of digital ID verification tools with biometrics in any UK jurisdictions, as LawtechUK initiative and its Regulatory Response Unit addressed hesitancy on the part of legal professionals to implement the tools for remote business with a joint statement.

Spotted by Law Gazette, the statement from the government-backed regulators to combat “lingering myths” about the validity of digital ID checks also represents other regulators, including the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Digital ID-checking tools combining biometric scanning with checks of official databases are like those that have found use in banking apps, Law Gazette reports.

LawtechUK notes reluctance from the legal community to adopt the technology because of the preference for clients to physically produce their documents as part of onboarding. The regulatory agency says, “This hesitance often stems from misconceptions around regulation, and a lack of awareness of the technical capabilities available to support clients and legal businesses themselves.”

The regulators argue that digital ID verification is a fast, affordable, and reliable method to verify identities and clamp down on money laundering and compliance risks. It would achieve this through document analysis, swifter client onboarding, and keeping pace with changes in international economic sanctions.

Jenifer Swallow, LawtechUK director, comments: “The joint statement sets out to erase the lingering myth that legal services regulation prevents the use or reliance on digital means of identity verification in law. Responsible selection, adoption and implementation of these tools can help improve compliance practices and client service across the legal sector.”

The regulators admit that manual verification will remain needed because some clients may be unwilling to use digital ID tools or for situations where face-to-face checks are required. Both digital and manual ID verification practices should remain and practitioners should be comfortable with both, it concludes.

Brazilian digital wallet permits vehicle transactions

A new digital wallet app created by the Brazilian government will allow for the selling and buying of cars across eight states without having to sign a paper contract, according to Infomoney. Parties to the transaction instead will verify their identities with biometrics.

The Digital Transit Wallet (CDT) is a mobile phone app available on iOS and Android that was developed by Brazil’s Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Economy through the National Traffic Department (Senatran) in partnership with Serpro, an IT company of the federal government. It allows for customers to carry out vehicle commercial transactions without having to notarize or sign a paper contract. The app will be a medium for the buyer and seller to communicate the sale and sign authorization for transfer of ownership, and secured with face biometrics. Upon completion of the sale, the new owner only needs to go to the local traffic department to carry out the inspection and transfer the vehicle.

The app is available in eight Brazilian provinces: Acre, Ceará, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Roraima. It is available to owners of vehicles with documents issued from 2021, when the old Brazilian vehicle transfer documents were replaced with a digital version.

According to the National Traffic Secretary, Frederico Carneiro, “This process is done with the greatest security, with requirements for biometric validation, facial recognition, to bring security to this transaction.”

Article Topics

AML  |  banking  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  iDenfy  |  identity verification  |  Innovatrics  |  KYC  |  onboarding  |  Onfido  |  secure transactions  |  selfie biometrics