As the world moves towards digitization, financial institutions are looking to adopt identity verification solutions that verify and validate in near real time the identity of the customer.
The UAE Central Bank along with the Securities and Commodities Authority, Dubai Financial Services Authority, and the Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial Services Regulatory Authority recently issued guidelines for those financial institutions adopting such technologies. Within these guidelines, the UAE governing authorities have approved the usage of facial verification to identify banking customers at the time of onboarding.
This growing trend of regulatory approved biometric solutions that rely on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to onboard clients is spreading across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. And with the rise of cybercrime – cyber-attacks occurring every 11 seconds – regulators and authorities are looking for solutions that are compliant with the highest security standards.
IDnow, a leading expert for digital identities and identity verification welcomes these new guidelines. With extensive expertise serving Germany’s and Switzerland’s highly regulated markets, IDnow has always focused on striking a balance between security and user experience.
IDnow’s regulatory affairs team is part of several regulatory working groups like ETSI, FIDO Alliance, W3C, and Hyperledger and consults authorities worldwide that are working on digital identity verification and authentication standards.
Being an expert has allowed IDnow to develop financial regulatory compliant products, notably, BankIdent. This completely AML-compliant online identification solution utilizes the users’ current online bank account to create an easy and secure identity verification service that effortlessly combines technology with existing identity and banking data. All that is required of the user is a valid photo ID, an active online bank account, and valid login credentials.
In addition, IDnow is looking closely into the latest developments around digital identity wallets in Europe, and is supporting different expert and working groups with their expertise. The new law will allow people to have their official documents, such as their drivers license or ID card in one central place on their smartphone with easy access to it, and the assurance that their information is securely stored.
Looking to the future, IDnow is expanding its global footprint. It recently opened two offices in the United Kingdom and one in the United Arab Emirates and is also looking to set up a call center in the Middle East to comply with regional data residency laws.
This benefits every party involved in the process, from making consumers’ lives easier, to reducing waiting times and increasing conversion rates, while keeping a high level of security.
Read on in our next article on the Middle East: ID Verification with AutoIdent – meeting UAE regulations
By
Basil Macklai
Head of Middle East
Connect with Basil on LinkedIn
