Biometric partnerships boost KYC in SE Asia, Ukraine as Nigeria and India see gains

KYC providers are targeting businesses in underserved areas to improve access to financial services with technologies like selfie biometrics and liveness detection. Element and Identomat have new partnerships to serve Southeast Asia and Ukraine, respectively, while VerifyMe Nigeria says KYC costs have dropped in its home country, and Aadhaar unveils its latest usage growth statistics.

Element in Southeast Asia

Element Inc has formed a strategic partnership to build additional security based on digital identity into the open finance technology of Brankas.

Element will provide biometric liveness checks and identity verification technology to support digital KYC checks by Brankas clients in Southeast Asia. Element’s technology will support customer onboarding and authentication.

“Element has the most comprehensive eKYC offering in the region, localised for specific markets,” says Brankas CEO and Co-founder Todd Schweitzer. “Their liveness check products and connectivity central databases for identity checks can make Brankas’ Open Banking products more fraud proof.”

VerifyMe and QoreID in Nigeria

The lack of trust infrastructure in Nigeria has been holding back the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises, VerifyMe Nigeria CEO and Co-founder Esigie Aguele said during the recent Fidelity SME Forum, as reported by This Day Live.

Aguele says that many businesses have the mistaken impression that KYC processes are too expensive, based on their price before it steeply declined, in part due to the influence of VerifyMe. The company launched B2B platform QoreID to help build up the needed trust infrastructure.

Aadhaar in India

Digital KYC transactions carried out with India’s national digital ID, Aadhaar, increased by 18.5 percent on a quarterly basis to reach 848 million from October to December, 2022.

The eKYC transactions also increased on a monthly basis during the last quarter.

Aadhaar can be used for more than 1,100 government programs operated by the central and state governments, according to the announcement. It is also used by 105 banks and dozens of other entities, and is credited with reducing customer acquisition costs, as has happened in Nigeria.

Identomat in Ukraine

Identomat has partnered with Ukraine-based compliance and business intelligence technology provider YouControl to offer secure remote identity verification and digital KYC checks in the war-torn country.

Under the partnership, Identomat will supply selfie biometrics and iBeta Level 2-tested liveness detection for KYC, anti-money laundering (AML) and politically exposed persons (PEP) checks. The integration is intended to provide efficient and affordable remote identity verification amid Russian fraud attempts and otherwise challenging circumstances.

The move unifies what had previously been an identity verification process carried out with two separate solutions, according to the announcement.

”Merging our forces with YouControl is a game-changer for the digital verification industry as a whole,” says Identomat CEO David Lomiashvili. “Together, we will be providing businesses with the most comprehensive and secure customer due diligence system. With the power of YouControl’s data and analytics and Identomat’s cutting-edge biometric technology, we will empower companies to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition. We are excited to see the impact of this partnership on the future of business and public services in Ukraine and beyond.”

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometric authentication  |  biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  Element  |  identity verification  |  Identomat  |  KYC  |  onboarding  |  VerifyMe Nigeria