Manual Identity Verification on the Rise as Businesses Cite Importance of Accuracy; Regula Reveals

A new survey conducted by identity verification solution provider Regula, reveals the readiness of banks and fintechs to address emerging challenges concerning identity verification.

‘The State of Identity Verification in 2023‘ report by Regula explains that financial services firms have seen a surge in foreign document verification cases. Eighty per cent of them reported an increase, particularly in countries like France (86 per cent), Turkey (86 per cent), and the USA (85 per cent). Alarmingly, 44 per cent of all respondents are facing a 25 per cent rise in volume over the last year. Furthermore, 62 per cent of these businesses are verifying foreign documents manually: a time-consuming process.

Thirty-eight per cent of fintechs and 31 per cent of respondents from banks cited accuracy as the most important consideration in choosing identity verification solutions. As a result, an increase in the number of manual checks is a significant ‘red flag’ for the industry, Regula explained.

Henry Patishman, executive vice president of identity verification solutions at Regula, commented: “The expansion of the global migration and digital nomad community, in particular, has highlighted the need for businesses to work with extended databases with a wide range of document templates, including rare specimens. Failure to do so may increase the risk of fraud since the lack of templates may lead to less accurate and thorough document verification checks.

“That is why we consistently update our database, which has now reached over 12,000 document templates from 247 countries and territories, to boost the capabilities of Regula Document Reader SDK. Since Regula experts have extensive knowledge of what security elements should look like, based on present documents, all possible IDs can be easily verified, and even the most sophisticated fraud can be promptly detected with our products”.

Regula’s criteria for selecting ‘the right’ identity verification solution

The identity verification solution provider explained what financial institutions should take into account when selecting the most suitable tool to respond to emerging challenges:

• The size and diversity of the document template database provided by the solution
  A tool featuring a database with detailed information on all present documents issued in different countries, their security parameters, and verification methods. It should be able to perform comprehensive ID checks quickly.
• The availability of liveness checks in the document verification flow
  The solution encompasses both document verification and biometric verification – providing strong protection against fraud, verifying both the document and the liveness of the individual. While document liveness confirms the presence of dynamic security elements (such as holograms) in the submitted document, and ensures that the passport or ID presented remotely is real, biometric liveness detects if a live person is applying, not a spoof or a fake.
• Face comparison and matching of a selfie to the photo in an ID document
  To mitigate identity fraud online, the solution should compare an image of the user’s identity document and the portrait from the identity document, (for example, from the chip or MRZ).