Signicat broadens remote IDV options with new open banking hub

As more banks and fintechs look for Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions, companies in the digital identity and authentication space are coming up with new products that could be applied beyond the financial sector.

Digital identity firm Signicat has launched a platform for remote identity verification that helps organizations verify someone’s personal information through their bank account.

Signicat’s new Open Banking Hub gives businesses permissioned access to personal information held by banks, helping them comply with AML regulations. The businesses receive reliable customer data during onboarding, preventing errors and fraud during payments. The platforms also have the option to perform affordability checks if customers can afford loans as well as credit scoring, Signicat explains in a release.

The Norwegian firm says that the product is not just aimed at regulated companies such as those from finance and insurance, but also public sector organizations and other firms. Public institutions could, for instance, use the Open Banking Hub for high-level assurance like verifying a bank account before a pay-out or preventing social benefit fraud. Employers, on the other hand, could use low-level assurance to onboard new employees.

Earlier this year, the company added biometric facial authentication to its MobileID platform to boost the security of mobile apps for financial and regulated service clients.

Signicat hopes that the product could make old methods of verifying bank accounts obsolete: Customers are normally required to upload bank statements or copies of bank cards, which often lead to friction, according to Pinar Alpay, chief product and marketing officer at Signicat.

“Affordability checks are often costly, cumbersome, and slow and might not be a process that BankID or digital identity schemes cover,” says Alpay.

Signicat’s Open Banking Hub currently gives companies access to over 15,000 bank and payment account providers in 22 countries.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  financial services  |  identity verification  |  open banking  |  remote identity proofing  |  Signicat