December 2025

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All You Need To Know About ESG Audit: Need, Steps And Benefits

Introduction To ESG Audit

What Is An ESG Audit?

An ESG audit is a comprehensive assessment of a company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. It involves the systematic review of an organisation’s policies, practices, and performance in these three key areas. The audit evaluates whether the company complies with ESG regulations, adheres to best practices, and meets the expectations of stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees, and regulatory authorities, instead of Greenwashing.

ESG audits are extremely important for businesses aiming to align themselves with the increasing global focus on sustainability and corporate responsibility. As climate change, social inequality, and corporate governance become key areas of concern for governments, investors, and the public, businesses are increasingly held accountable for their actions in these domains. This makes ESG audits an important tool for long-term business success, especially going forward in 2026 and beyond.

The Importance & Need Of ESG Audit In India

In India, the importance of ESG audits has been amplified by a series of new regulations and global sustainability commitments, like the country’s 2070 Net Zero target. With the country’s growing emphasis on environmental responsibility, social equity, and good governance, businesses must ensure they are transparent and accountable in their practices.

India has made huge strides in introducing regulations to measure and manage environmental impact. For example, the recent introduction of the GHG Emission Intensity Target Rules 2025 mandates that Indian businesses track their carbon emissions and work toward defined emission reduction targets. These rules, which aim to bring companies in India in line with global climate goals, require them to accurately measure their emissions and report them to regulators.

Moreover, companies are increasingly being asked to disclose their social responsibility efforts and governance structures in response to growing investor demand for sustainable investments. According to a NASSCOM report, 70% of investors are now prioritising ESG factors when making investment decisions.

How ESG Audits Help In Business Sustainability

ESG suits can significantly help companies showcase their efforts towards sustainability and attract potential investments for the future. By conducting regular ESG audits, companies can:

Meet Regulatory Compliance: Ensure compliance with national and international standards for sustainability and governance, such as the BRSR and the GHG Protocol.
Attract Sustainable Investment: Enhance their attractiveness to responsible investors who prioritise ESG performance when making investment decisions.
Improve Operational Efficiency: Identify areas for improving resource efficiency and reducing costs, such as waste management, energy consumption, and water use.
Strengthen Corporate Reputation: Build trust with customers, partners, and stakeholders by demonstrating transparency and a commitment to ethical business practices.
Manage Risks: Identify and mitigate environmental, social, and governance risks that could impact the business, from climate-related risks to supply chain sustainability.

Important ESG Standards And Reporting Frameworks

ESG frameworks set clear guidelines for measuring, reporting, and reducing environmental impact, improving social conditions, and ensuring sound governance practices.

Here, we outline the key ESG frameworks and regulations, focusing on their role in shaping compliance and sustainability efforts in India.

SEBI Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR)

Introduced by: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
Scope: The BRSR framework applies to listed companies in India, mandating the disclosure of their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in a standardised format.

The BRSR was introduced to replace the previous Business Responsibility Report (BRR) under SEBI’s Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) regulations. The BRSR framework, implemented from the financial year 2021-22, ensures that Indian companies provide comprehensive disclosures on their sustainability efforts. This includes carbon emissions, energy consumption, water usage, waste management, worker health and safety, community engagement, board diversity, and anti-corruption efforts.

The BRSR framework includes two parts:

BRSR Core: A simplified version for the top 1000 listed companies by market capitalisation.
BRSR Plus: More detailed disclosures for the remaining companies.

Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity Target Rules 2025

Introduced by: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)
Scope: These rules apply to high-emission industries such as cement, aluminium, steel, pulp and paper, and chlor-alkali.

The GHG Emission Intensity Target Rules 2025 are India’s first legally binding regulations on industrial carbon emissions. These rules require specified industries to reduce their emission intensity (measured in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per unit of product) compared to a baseline year (2023–24). The rules target a 20% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030. The framework allows companies to earn carbon credits if they exceed their reduction targets, which can then be traded on the carbon market.

GHG Protocol

Introduced by: World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
Scope: The GHG Protocol provides globally recognised guidelines for businesses and governments to measure, manage, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions across three “scopes”:

Scope 1: Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company.
Scope 3: Other indirect emissions from sources not owned or controlled by the company, such as supply chains and product usage.

The GHG Protocol is the standard framework for measuring and reporting emissions in a consistent manner that is globally recognised. Using the GHG Protocol allows companies to quantify and disclose their carbon footprint, enabling them to manage and reduce emissions efficiently.

ISO 14001:2015

Introduced by: International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
Scope: ISO 14001:2015 is a globally recognised standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS). It provides a framework for businesses of all sizes to manage and reduce their environmental impact.

The ISO 14001 standard outlines the criteria for setting up an EMS that helps companies minimise their environmental footprint, ensure compliance with regulations, and improve their sustainability efforts continuously. It requires companies to focus on resource efficiency, waste reduction, energy use, and emissions control.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Introduced by: Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and the Tellus Institute, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Scope: The GRI standards are the most widely used sustainability reporting framework globally. They focus on economic, environmental, and social impacts and guide businesses in reporting on a broad range of sustainability issues.

The GRI Standards are intended to help businesses report on their sustainability practices transparently and comprehensively. Companies are encouraged to disclose both positive and negative impacts, ensuring that stakeholders can make informed decisions. By adhering to GRI, companies can enhance their transparency, demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, and attract sustainable investment.

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

Introduced by Jean Rogers in 2011
Scope: SASB provides industry-specific standards for sustainability disclosures. It focuses on material issues that affect financial performance across 77 industries.

The SASB Standards are designed to help companies disclose financially material sustainability information in a way that is comparable across industries. These standards focus on climate change, water management, human capital management, and other key issues that influence a company’s financial performance. In India, SASB standards are particularly relevant for sectors like energy, finance, and manufacturing, which face unique sustainability challenges.

Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

Introduced by: The Financial Stability Board (FSB) in 2015
Scope: The TCFD provides recommendations for disclosing climate-related risks and opportunities in financial filings.

The TCFD Recommendations are designed to help companies disclose how climate-related risks affect their governance, strategy, risk management, and financial performance. It encourages businesses to disclose how climate change impacts long-term strategy and capital planning.

How ESG Audits Help Companies Comply with Regulatory Requirements

Ensuring Compliance with India’s GHG Emission Intensity Target Rules

The GHG Emission Intensity Target Rules 2025 introduced by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) require high-emission industries such as cement, aluminium, steel, and energy to reduce their carbon intensity by 20% by 2030, relative to a baseline year of 2023–24. This regulatory framework mandates that companies track and report their emissions accurately, making ESG audits indispensable in the process.

Through ESG audits, companies can:

Accurately measure and verify their emissions: ESG audits ensure that businesses track their carbon emissions in line with the GHG Protocol, which is the global standard for measuring and managing greenhouse gas emissions. This measurement is essential for reporting emissions in a consistent manner that aligns with regulatory expectations.
Identify areas for emissions reduction: ESG audits help companies identify key areas where they can reduce carbon emissions. For instance, an audit might highlight energy inefficiencies in manufacturing processes or excess energy consumption in production lines, providing insights into how businesses can adopt cleaner technologies or improve energy efficiency.
Ensure proper reporting for compliance: Once the emissions are accurately measured and reported, ESG audits validate the data, ensuring that it meets the regulatory standards and is ready for submission to government authorities. These audits help verify that businesses are not only compliant with the GHG Emission Intensity Target Rules but are also positioning themselves as leaders in climate risk management.

Without these audits, businesses risk non-compliance and potential penalties, especially as the Indian government increases its monitoring of emissions and introduces stricter enforcement mechanisms under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme.

Supporting Compliance with SEBI’s BRSR Guidelines

ESG audits play a crucial role in ensuring that companies meet BRSR compliance by:

Verifying the accuracy of ESG disclosures: ESG audits provide third-party validation of the data disclosed under BRSR, helping businesses ensure that their carbon footprint, water usage, waste management, and employee welfare practices are reported accurately and honestly.
Identifying gaps in sustainability practices: The audit process helps identify discrepancies between reported ESG data and actual practices. For example, a company might report reduced water consumption but might have inefficient water management practices that have not been fully implemented. ESG audits highlight such gaps and suggest corrective actions.
Improving stakeholder trust: Through verified disclosures, businesses build greater trust with investors, regulators, and consumers. Regular ESG audits ensure that companies’ sustainability efforts are not only compliant with SEBI guidelines but are also consistent with best practices in global ESG reporting.

Aligning with International Standards: GRI, SASB, and ISO 14001

As India’s companies continue to grow and expand globally, aligning with international standards is becoming increasingly important. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) are two such frameworks that help businesses disclose their sustainability performance in a structured and globally recognised manner. By aligning with these frameworks through ESG audits, Indian businesses ensure they remain competitive on a global scale while adhering to national regulatory standards.

The Role of TCFD in Climate Risk Management

ESG audits based on TCFD help businesses:

Disclose climate risks: ESG audits verify that companies are properly identifying and disclosing physical risks (e.g., exposure to extreme weather events) and transition risks (e.g., regulatory changes related to carbon pricing).
Assess financial impacts: ESG audits ensure that companies have included climate risks in their financial planning and capital allocation, in line with TCFD recommendations.
Build investor confidence: By transparently disclosing climate risks, businesses can gain investor trust, especially as climate risk is becoming an essential consideration for sustainable investment.

Steps Involved In ESG Audits

1. Understand the ESG Landscape

This step involves getting a clear understanding of the company’s current position regarding ESG factors. This includes reviewing the company’s existing ESG strategy, identifying potential ESG risks, and understanding the expectations of stakeholders (such as investors, customers, and employees). It helps the audit team to understand where the company stands on sustainability, governance, and social practices, setting the stage for the audit process.

2. Define Scope & Objectives of the Audit

This step is about defining which areas of ESG the audit will cover. Will the audit focus on all three pillars, Environmental, Social, Governance, or just one? The goals of the audit are also set here: Is the audit for compliance verification, to identify risks, or to improve reporting accuracy? Clearly defining the scope ensures the audit is aligned with the company’s objectives and that resources are used effectively.

3. Stakeholder Engagement & Data Collection

In this phase, the audit team engages with key stakeholders (e.g., company leaders, employees, suppliers) to gather insights into the company’s ESG practices. They also collect all relevant data, such as environmental impact reports, employee welfare policies, governance structures, and sustainability initiatives. Collecting reliable data and feedback from various sources helps the auditors understand the true picture of the company’s ESG performance.

4. Materiality & Risk Assessment

In this step, the auditors assess which ESG issues are most material (or important) to the company. For example, a company in the energy sector may focus more on its carbon emissions, while one in the tech industry may focus on data privacy and cybersecurity. The auditors also identify potential risks that could harm the company’s sustainability or reputation. Materiality assessment helps prioritise ESG issues that need attention, ensuring that the audit focuses on the most significant areas.

5. Select ESG Audit Frameworks

This step involves selecting established ESG frameworks (like the ones we mentioned above) for the audit. These frameworks provide structured, industry-recognised guidelines for measuring and reporting ESG performance, ensuring that the audit results are consistent and reliable.

6. Audit Fieldwork & Evidence Verification

This is the core audit phase where auditors collect evidence to verify whether the company’s ESG practices match the information reported. This may include reviewing documents like energy consumption reports, employee health and safety data, governance policies, and examining records for compliance with environmental laws or labour standards. Verifying the data and checking for consistency ensures that the reported ESG performance is accurate, complete, and trustworthy.

7. Evaluate Against Standards

Once the data is collected and verified, auditors compare the company’s ESG performance to the standards and criteria outlined in the selected frameworks (like GRI, SASB, or TCFD). This step identifies areas where the company meets the standards and where there are gaps. This evaluation helps to highlight areas where the company is excelling or needs improvement in terms of ESG practices. It also shows the level of compliance with global standards.

8. Report Findings & Recommendations

After completing the audit, the auditors prepare a report that documents the findings. This report includes:

Positive outcomes: Areas where the company is performing well.
Weaknesses or gaps: Areas where the company falls short of ESG expectations or where improvements are needed.
Recommendations: Concrete steps the company can take to improve ESG practices, meet regulatory requirements, or align with industry standards.

The report serves as a roadmap for the company to understand its ESG performance and improve where necessary. It can also be used to communicate with stakeholders (like investors or regulators) about the company’s ESG efforts.

9. Follow-up & Continuous Improvement

After the audit, the company should follow up on the audit recommendations by taking action to correct deficiencies or improve practices. Continuous monitoring may be needed to track progress. The company might set up regular internal ESG audits to ensure ongoing compliance and performance improvement. An ESG audit is not a one-time event. The follow-up ensures the company continues to improve its ESG practices, address new risks, and stay aligned with changing regulations.

Why Should Companies Invest In ESG Audits?

As India pushes ahead with sustainability regulations, businesses must keep pace with changing laws and rising expectations from investors, customers, and employees. The introduction of GHG Emission Intensity Target Rules 2025 and SEBI’s BRSR guidelines have made it clear: companies that fail to integrate sustainability into their operations are at risk of falling behind.

In this context, ESG audits are fast becoming a necessity for business resilience and growth.

The Growing Pressure To Comply With New Regulations

Sectors like cement, steel, and energy have to cut their carbon intensity by 20% by 2030. This is a huge shift, and for businesses, it means that the GHG reduction target is mandatory.

But here’s the thing: these GHG targets are just the beginning. Over the next few years, we’ll see an acceleration in environmental regulations, and businesses will need to keep pace with ever-evolving laws. This is where ESG audits play a crucial role. By ensuring accurate carbon emissions reporting, identifying compliance gaps, and spotting opportunities for emissions reduction, ESG audits ensure that businesses exceed their regulatory targets, positioning themselves as leaders in corporate sustainability.

Think of an ESG audit as a compass. It’s about knowing where you stand in relation to compliance and understanding what needs to change to meet both current regulations and future expectations. Without it, companies risk falling short on regulatory demands or, worse, facing penalties or reputational damage from non-compliance.

Building Investor Trust and Gaining Market Confidence

Today’s investors are not just looking at financial returns, but sustainability as well. ESG performance is now a key factor in investment decisions. So, how can businesses make themselves attractive to investors? By proving they are on top of their ESG game. Investors want clear, reliable data on a company’s environmental practices, social impact, and governance structure.

An ESG audit ensures that businesses can provide verified and transparent ESG data that’s not just compliant with regulations like BRSR but also aligned with global standards. Whether it’s carbon emissions, employee well-being, or corporate governance, investors expect businesses to be open about their sustainability practices.

When investors see that a company has verified ESG data, backed by independent audits, they are more likely to view the company as a safe bet, reducing their perceived risk. For businesses aiming to raise capital or attract long-term investments, ESG audits are a gateway to credibility and a stronger market position. It’s not just about avoiding greenwashing; it’s about genuine transparency that builds trust with current and future investors.

Operational Efficiency and Long-Term Value

While compliance and investor confidence are the most immediate drivers for ESG audits, there’s a strategic benefit that’s often overlooked: operational efficiency. ESG audits highlight areas where businesses can improve and optimise their operations.

Take energy consumption as an example. An energy audit through an ESG framework might reveal opportunities to reduce energy waste, adopt renewable energy, or optimise manufacturing processes. These improvements, while reducing environmental impact, also lead to cost savings—something every business can appreciate. Similarly, waste management, water use, and resource allocation are areas where ESG audits can bring substantial efficiency improvements, all of which contribute to long-term sustainability and profitability.

As consumer preferences shift toward sustainable brands, companies that adopt proactive ESG strategies will enjoy competitive advantages in the marketplace. An ESG audit provides the roadmap to get there, helping businesses understand what’s working, what’s not, and where growth opportunities lie.

Enhancing Reputation and Customer Loyalty

In today’s market, customers are paying more attention to the sustainability practices of the brands they support. Whether it’s about reducing carbon footprints, ensuring fair labour practices, or improving product traceability, consumers want to align with companies that share their values. ESG audits play a crucial role in ensuring that businesses are not only compliant with regulations but also able to communicate their sustainability efforts clearly to their customer base.

When a company can demonstrate that its sustainability claims are backed by verified audits, it builds trust and loyalty with customers. In sectors like retail or consumer goods, where customer loyalty is crucial, the ability to show commitment to environmental stewardship and social responsibility through audited ESG data can be a game-changer.

How AuthBridge Helps Streamline ESG Audits For Businesses In India?

At AuthBridge, we understand the complexities of ESG compliance and the importance of accurate reporting. Our ESG audit services are designed to help businesses navigate the complexities of environmental regulations, social responsibilities, and governance best practices.

Our work with clients, like GHCL, a leading chemical fertiliser company, showcases the impact of effective ESG auditing. By streamlining their ESG readiness, we enabled them to align their sustainability practices with global standards while improving their operational efficiency and reporting credibility.

As businesses continue to face mounting pressure from regulators, investors, and customers, AuthBridge offers the expertise and tools needed to ensure compliance, mitigate risks, and create lasting value through strategic ESG audits.

Conclusion

As India’s regulatory environment around sustainability tightens, businesses must move beyond compliance to ensure long-term resilience. ESG audits are essential for not only meeting environmental regulations but also for improving operational efficiency, building investor trust, and achieving sustainable growth.

This blog has been verified by a certified expert in ESG performance measurement, ensuring that all insights are factually accurate and aligned with industry standards. AuthBridge is committed to guiding your business through the complexities of ESG audits, ensuring you not only comply with the law but also thrive in a sustainable future.

By Abhinandan, 3 daysDecember 22, 2025 ago

BFSI

What Is a Money Mule? Meaning, Risks, Examples & How Scams Work

Understanding The Concept Of A Money Mule

A money mule is an individual who is used—knowingly or unknowingly—to transfer, move, or launder illegally obtained money on behalf of criminals. The term “mule” is deliberately used to describe the role played: acting as a carrier that enables illicit funds to pass through legitimate financial systems without immediately alerting authorities.

In modern financial crime, money mules sit at the centre of fraud, cybercrime, identity theft, romance scams, and organised laundering networks. Criminals exploit personal bank accounts, digital wallets, and payment apps belonging to mules to distance themselves from the original crime. Once funds pass through a mule’s account, tracing the true beneficiary becomes significantly harder for banks and law enforcement agencies.

What makes money mule activity particularly dangerous is that many individuals do not realise they are participating in a crime. Students, job seekers, gig workers, and even professionals are frequently targeted using seemingly legitimate offers such as “payment processing jobs,” “work-from-home opportunities,” or requests from online acquaintances. According to Europol, money mule networks are now one of the most common operational tools used by organised crime groups to move funds across borders while avoiding detection.

From a regulatory perspective, money mule activity is treated as financial crime facilitation. Even if the individual claims ignorance, the legal system often views confirmed mule behaviour as a breach of anti-money laundering (AML) laws. This places individuals at risk of frozen accounts, criminal charges, long-term credit damage, and permanent restrictions from banking services.

Common Red Flags That Indicate Money Mule Risk

Money mule scams often rely on speed, secrecy, and confusion. While the methods may vary, the warning signs tend to be consistent across cases. Recognising these red flags early can help individuals avoid unintentionally participating in financial crime and facing serious legal or financial consequences.

Key Red Flags To Watch Out For:

Unexpected Job Offers Involving Money Transfers
Roles that ask you to receive, move, or “process” money using your personal bank account, especially without interviews or formal contracts.
Promises Of Easy Or Guaranteed Income
Offers that claim high earnings for minimal effort, often framed as “part-time,” “remote,” or “work-from-home” opportunities.
Requests To Use Your Bank Account Or Payment App
Any instruction to share account details or allow funds to pass through your account on behalf of someone else.
Pressure To Act Quickly Or Maintain Secrecy
Being told to transfer money immediately or not to discuss the transaction with your bank, employer, or family.
Vague Or Inconsistent Explanations About Fund Sources
Unclear reasons for why the money is being transferred, frequently changing stories, or evasive answers when questioned.
Payments Originating From Unknown Or Overseas Accounts
Receiving funds from unfamiliar individuals, businesses, or international sources without a clear commercial relationship.
Instructions To Convert Funds Into Cash Or Cryptocurrency
Requests to withdraw cash, buy gift cards, or transfer money into crypto wallets shortly after receipt.
Communication Through Informal Channels Only
Reliance on messaging apps or social media instead of official email addresses or verifiable company domains.

Legal And Financial Consequences Of Being A Money Mule

Being linked to a money mule account can have serious and long-lasting consequences, even when the individual claims they were unaware of the criminal activity. Financial institutions and regulators typically treat mule activity as a material compliance breach, because such accounts directly facilitate fraud and money laundering.

From a banking perspective, the most immediate impact is account action. Once suspicious mule-like behaviour is detected, banks may freeze the account, restrict withdrawals, and reverse transactions under investigation. In many cases, the account holder is permanently barred from reopening accounts with the same bank, and adverse internal risk markers may be shared across the banking ecosystem. This can make it extremely difficult for individuals to access basic financial services in the future.

On the legal side, money mule activity may attract scrutiny under anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud prevention laws. Even if the person did not initiate the original scam, transferring or holding illicit funds can be interpreted as aiding or abetting financial crime. Law enforcement agencies often begin investigations from mule accounts because they represent the first identifiable touchpoint in an otherwise anonymous crime chain. As highlighted by multiple financial institutions, ignorance of the crime is not always accepted as a defence once repeated or high-value transactions are involved.

The financial consequences can also be severe. Funds credited into mule accounts are frequently clawed back once identified as proceeds of crime, leaving the account holder liable for negative balances or repayment obligations. Additionally, individuals may lose legitimate savings if accounts are frozen during extended investigations. According to industry reports, mule account holders often face credit score deterioration, impacting loan eligibility, employment background checks, and even rental agreements.

Long-Term Impact Of Money Mule Involvement

While legal action and immediate financial losses are the most visible outcomes of money mule involvement, the long-term impact often extends much further, affecting an individual’s professional life, digital footprint, and access to essential financial services. These consequences are rarely discussed upfront but can be far more damaging over time.

Key Long-Term Impacts

Permanent Banking Restrictions
Individuals linked to mule activity may be flagged internally by banks, leading to account closures and long-term difficulty in opening new savings, current, or salary accounts. In some cases, access to digital banking and payment platforms is also restricted.
Negative Credit And Financial History
Suspicious account activity can impact creditworthiness, making it harder to secure loans, credit cards, or financial products in the future—even if no criminal conviction occurs.
Employment And Career Risk
Background checks conducted by employers, especially in BFSI, fintech, consulting, or compliance-heavy roles, may surface adverse financial behaviour. This can result in job offer withdrawals or termination.
Ongoing Regulatory Monitoring
Once flagged, individuals may be subjected to enhanced scrutiny for future transactions, including frequent KYC reviews, transaction delays, or reporting to regulatory bodies.
Reputational And Digital Footprint Damage
In some cases, involvement in financial crime investigations may appear in public records, court documents, or employer verification databases, creating long-term reputational risk.
Psychological And Social Impact
Victims of mule scams often experience stress, anxiety, and loss of trust in financial systems—particularly when they were unaware of their involvement initially.

Conclusion: Why Awareness of Money Mule Risks Matters More Than Ever

Money mule activity is no longer a niche or distant financial crime issue; it is a mainstream risk that affects individuals, banks, fintech platforms, employers, and the wider financial ecosystem. As fraudsters increasingly rely on real people and real bank accounts to move illicit funds, the boundary between victim and participant becomes dangerously thin. What often begins as an innocent job offer, a favour for an online acquaintance, or a quick way to earn extra money can quickly escalate into account freezes, long-term financial exclusion, and legal scrutiny.

From an individual’s perspective, the most effective protection lies in awareness and caution. Understanding how money mule schemes operate, recognising suspicious requests involving bank accounts or transfers, and questioning offers that bypass normal employment or payment processes can prevent irreversible consequences. For organisations and financial institutions, the challenge is equally significant. Robust onboarding checks, continuous transaction monitoring, behavioural analytics, and timely customer education are no longer optional; they are foundational to effective AML and fraud prevention strategies.

Ultimately, combating money mule networks requires a shared responsibility. Regulators, banks, businesses, and customers all play a role in disrupting these schemes. By staying informed, vigilant, and sceptical of anything that feels unusually urgent or lucrative, individuals can protect themselves while contributing to a safer and more transparent financial system.

By Siddharth, 5 days ago

BFSI

Benefits Of Doing Dormant Account Reactivation

What Are Dormant Bank Accounts?

With the RBI’s deadline on unclaimed deposits approaching quickly, fast dormant account reactivation becomes an extremely important step for banks to get done with. A dormant bank account is an account that has not seen any customer-initiated activity, such as deposits, withdrawals, fund transfers, or cheque processing, over a prolonged period. Typically, banks classify an account as dormant after 12 months of inactivity, though this period can vary by bank policy.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), if an account remains dormant for two years or more, it is officially designated as “inoperative.” The reasons for inactivity can be many, including the account holder forgetting about the account or simply not using the account for regular transactions. When accounts become dormant, they lose several operational capabilities, such as online banking access, ATM transactions, and even cheque functionality, leaving customers unable to utilise their funds.

While dormant accounts often sit untouched, they can cause operational challenges for both the customer and the bank. For customers, the inconvenience of reactivating an account can deter them from accessing their funds, while banks face regulatory and customer service burdens in managing dormant accounts.

RBI Guidelines On Unclaimed Deposits

The RBI has set clear guidelines on the treatment of dormant accounts and unclaimed deposits. According to RBI regulations, any account that has remained dormant for 10 years or more is classified as an unclaimed deposit. These funds are then transferred to the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund, a special account set up by the RBI.

Once funds are transferred to the DEA, the original account holder, or their legal heirs, can still claim the money. However, the process to retrieve the funds from the DEA can be complex and time-consuming, often requiring formal documentation and approval. To avoid such situations, RBI encourages banks to re-engage account holders and reactivate dormant accounts well before the 10-year mark.

RBI’s guidelines also stress that banks should take steps to remind customers about dormant accounts. For instance, banks are required to send periodic notices to customers whose accounts are nearing dormancy, reminding them to initiate transactions to keep the account active. This proactive communication is vital in preventing the account from being classified as dormant, and it helps ensure that funds are not unnecessarily transferred to DEA.

What Is Dormant Account Reactivation, And How To Reactivate Dormant Accounts?

Reactivation of a dormant account means bringing a bank or financial account, which has become inactive (as explained previously), back to an active, usable state. This is done by contacting the institution, verifying the customer’s identity with relevant identity documents, and performing a transaction like a deposit or withdrawal. This process restores full access to the account that was previously restricted due to dormancy and prevents the funds from being transferred to DEA.

Reactivating a dormant account can be a simple process if the correct steps are followed. For banks, the primary challenge lies in ensuring that the account holder is still the rightful owner of the account and that their contact details are up-to-date.

In the past, reactivating dormant accounts often required customers to visit the branch in person, undergo KYC (Know Your Customer) checks, and update their contact details. The process was typically cumbersome, especially for individuals who had moved to a different location or were unable to visit the bank during business hours.

However, with advancements in technology and regulatory changes, the reactivation process has been streamlined. Banks now allow customers to reactivate their dormant accounts remotely through video-based KYC (V-CIP) or by updating contact details online. These changes have made it significantly easier for customers to regain access to their funds without the need for in-person visits, and banks can verify account holders’ identities securely from a distance.

Steps for Reactivation:

KYC Update: The first step in the reactivation process is updating the KYC details. Customers are typically required to submit government-issued ID proofs, address proof, and a photograph. In some cases, this process can be completed remotely using video-based verification (V-CIP), where the customer appears in a live video to confirm their identity.
Bank’s Approval: Once the KYC update is completed, the bank processes the request for reactivation, and the account is returned to active status. The customer is then notified, and the account becomes fully functional once again.

How Can Banks Expedite Dormant Account Reactivation Using AuthBridge’s Solution

GroundCheck.ai provides a modern alternative that transforms dormant account reactivation into a smart, scalable, and secure workflow.

1. Real‑Time, Risk‑Aligned Contact Validation

GroundCheck.ai does more than just confirm if a phone number or email exists. It uses an AI‑powered engine to validate contact points and geographical presence with sophisticated checks, such as:

Geolocation and GPS triangulation to ensure the customer’s claimed address matches real‑world coordinates.
Face match and liveness detection during remote verification steps to confirm the account holder’s identity.
Dynamic, risk‑aligned workflows that adjust the depth of verification based on the specific profile of each dormant account.

For a bank, this means that reactivation verification becomes automated, risk‑tiered, and precise, reducing false positives and unnecessary steps for low‑risk accounts, while focusing effort where it counts. When banks can verify contact points instantly, dormant accounts that might otherwise stagnate begin moving again.

2. Pan‑India Coverage with Seamless Scalability

One of the persistent challenges in dormant account workflows is geographic diversity. In India, customers might be located in dense urban zones or remote rural regions where physical branch access is limited. GroundCheck.ai’s platform overcomes this by providing verified field support across 20,000+ PIN codes, meaning that whether the account holder lives in a major city or a semi‑urban setting, contact point and address verification can be completed efficiently.

For banks, this means low turnaround times even in low‑connectivity areas, enabling dormant accounts to be reactivated without forcing customers to travel or delay their requests.

3. Integrated Digital and On‑Ground Verification

GroundCheck.ai unifies digital address verification, remote identity checks (V‑CIP), and on‑ground presence validation into a cohesive workflow. For example:

If a customer’s mobile number and email are verified instantly via digital channels, the platform may complete reactivation without any additional steps.
If digital checks are inconclusive or a higher risk is detected, an agent with geo‑tagged tools can perform an on‑ground verification automatically—without requiring the customer to visit a branch.

This adaptive verification journey ensures that banks can handle high volumes of dormant accounts with minimal manual intervention, while maintaining the integrity of KYC and regulatory compliance.

4. Audit‑Ready Records and Compliance Confidence

Each verification event through GroundCheck.ai generates a digital audit trail: geo‑tagged reports, timestamps, photo evidence and system logs that document each step of the verification. This is critical for:

RBI compliance checks,
Internal audit requirements,
Risk management assessments,
Operational transparency.

By embedding compliance documentation directly into the reactivation workflow, banks reduce the risks of regulatory pushback and improve stakeholder confidence in their dormant account management processes.

5. Faster Turnaround, Reduced Operational Cost

Traditional dormant account reactivation poses cost and time challenges:

Branch visits require staff time,
Paper‑driven KYC creates filing and tracking overhead,
Postal and telephonic follow‑ups introduce delays.

GroundCheck.ai eradicates these bottlenecks by enabling a digital, remote and on‑ground solution in a unified platform that operates at scale. Banks that deploy GroundCheck.ai can expect:

Quicker reactivation times (hours instead of days/weeks),
Lower staff overhead due to automation,
Fewer failed reactivation attempts due to out‑of‑date contact points,
Higher customer satisfaction through seamless reactivation experiences.

6. Enhanced Risk Management

Beyond strictly dormant account reactivation, the same capabilities can support portfolio risk profiling. Accounts flagged for higher risk—such as those with long periods of dormancy, inconsistent contact details, or previous fraud flags—can be routed through deeper, AI‑guided verification steps, ensuring that security and compliance do not lag as banks streamline operations.

Conclusion

Reactivating dormant accounts no longer has to be a cumbersome, time-consuming process. With AuthBridge’s GroundCheck.ai, banks and financial institutions can harness the power of AI to streamline dormant account verification, enhance customer experience, and ensure compliance with RBI regulations. The platform’s real-time contact point validation, remote verification capabilities, and fraud detection mechanisms offer a faster, more secure, and cost-effective way to handle dormant accounts, which ultimately benefits both the bank and the customer.

Whether it’s through automated address verification, video KYC, or AI-powered fraud prevention, GroundCheck.ai equips banks with the tools they need to optimise dormant account management, reduce operational overheads, and ensure a seamless reactivation experience for account holders.

For banks looking to take their dormant account reactivation process to the next level, GroundCheck.ai offers the future of verification technology, today.

By Abhinandan, 2 weeksDecember 11, 2025 ago

BFSI

AuthBridge Product Updates: November 2025

At AuthBridge, we are continually improving our product offerings to meet the changing requirements of businesses. The latest enhancements to OnboardX, iBridge, and TruthScreen are designed to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and enhance client satisfaction. These upgrades bring a host of benefits to industries like Banking & Financial Services (BFSI), E-commerce, Manufacturing, Telecom, and more.

Let’s dive into these updates in the sections below.

OnboardX

Our end-to-end third-party onboarding solution, OnboardX, gets significant upgrades, enhancing both its functionality and user experience.

Key Enhancements:

Predefined Approver Levels:
The Refer feature streamlines the approval process by enabling businesses to predefine and configure their internal approval hierarchy in advance. This ensures that cases are automatically routed to the right stakeholders at the right level, reducing manual coordination, eliminating ambiguity in approvals, and accelerating decision-making while maintaining proper governance and control.
Multi-Workflow Sign Drive:
By incorporating Aadhaar Signing, OnboardX makes the client onboarding process faster and more efficient, particularly for companies that handle high volumes of customer onboarding. This eliminates the bottlenecks associated with physical signs and leads to faster approval processes.
MFA Integration (Two-factor Authentication) via email:
With increasing concerns around security, the Two-factor Authentication feature, enabled via email, enhances compliance for customers, especially those where securing sensitive data is a top priority. Two-factor authentication via email sends a one-time code or link to your email to verify your identity when logging in, adding a second security layer beyond your password.
Auto-fetch insufficiency data from uploaded documents: OnboardX now has an added functionality wherein it can automatically populate the data in the sections that were previously marked as insufficiencies. This helps enhance the user experience by removing their dependency to populate missing data.
Super Admin Role:
Under the updated setup, we are introducing a Super Admin role to enhance governance and visibility at a project level. This role provides a consolidated view of the entire project, including real-time visibility into the number of cases assigned to each field executive, the current stage of every case, and overall progress across workflows. In addition, the Super Admin will have the ability to manage and edit workflows, ensuring tighter operational control, faster course correction, and improved oversight across the engagement.
Special Instructions Display:
To streamline operations for Field Executives, any cases requiring additional steps are now flagged and communicated to them in real time. This ensures immediate clarity on next actions, minimises back-and-forth, and helps prevent delays. As a result, the overall processing time is reduced, leading to improved turnaround times (TAT) and a more efficient on-ground execution process.

iBridge

iBridge is a key solution from AuthBridge, offering valuable features designed to optimise operations and improve the overall client experience. Here are the latest updates to iBridge:

Key Enhancements:

AI-Powered Document Classification:
iBridge now features AI-powered document classification, automating the sorting and tagging of documents. What this means is that if, for instance, a candidate is asked to upload his educational marksheet and that candidate uploads his PAN card, the system will automatically flag an error and will prevent the submission of the same. This system also classifies different documents uploaded automatically in the relevant categories. For example, this feature classifies 10th, 12th marksheets as educational documents and PAN cards as identity documents.
Smart Pre-filled Forms:
We have significantly enhanced the User Experience (UX) by automatically pre-filling verification forms with data fetched directly from uploaded documents. Just like OnboardX, this helps enhance the user experience by removing their dependency on populating missing data.
AI-Calling Feature:
Our new AI calling feature handles reminders, address verification, and device verification automatically, streamlining communication. AI calls now capture details directly from users, significantly saving Field Executive time and reducing Turnaround Time (TAT).

TruthScreen

TruthScreen continues to be a pillar of our verification suite, offering cutting-edge tools for background verification. The latest updates make it even more valuable for industries where ensuring compliance and trustworthiness is crucial.

Key Enhancements:

International Bank Account Verification:
The ability to verify international bank account details enables companies to securely process cross-border transactions, thereby reducing fraud risks and enhancing the accuracy of financial data.
Pinless Digilocker Integration:
To ensure a smoother and more hassle-free candidate experience, the platform now supports seamless retrieval of candidate details and documents directly from DigiLocker, without requiring the candidate to enter a DigiLocker PIN, thus expediting the overall onboarding experience.
Higher success rates for PAN and Bank Account verification:
With this update, PAN and Bank Account verification success rates have improved substantially. This ensures more cases are completed successfully in the first attempt, with fewer failures and delays, resulting in faster closures and a smoother overall verification experience.

By Abhinandan, 2 weeksDecember 10, 2025 ago

BFSI

Benefits Of Using RegTech In AML: A Complete Guide

Introduction

Anti-money laundering (AML) has become one of the most demanding regulatory responsibilities for financial institutions. Criminal networks now operate across borders, use complex corporate structures and leverage digital channels to hide the origins of illicit funds. As these methods get more sophisticated, regulators worldwide have tightened compliance expectations, imposing stricter reporting requirements, sharper enforcement and significant penalties for failures in supervision.

RegTech, short for Regulatory Technology, has emerged as an answer to this mounting pressure. RegTech uses modern digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, API integrations, and advanced analytics to help organisations comply with regulations accurately, conduct due diligence at scale, and detect suspicious behaviour with far greater precision than manual processes allow.

While legacy compliance teams depend heavily on paperwork, human judgment and sampling-based reviews, RegTech blends in structured, data-driven controls. This is important because transactions occur instantly, customers interact digitally, and new forms of financial crime surface regularly. By automating repetitive checks, standardising documentation and enabling real-time alerts, RegTech ensures that institutions can respond at the same pace as the risks they face.

How RegTech Strengthens Anti-Money Laundering Frameworks

Automating Customer Due Diligence And Enhanced Due Diligence

Customer due diligence has traditionally involved extensive manual verification of identities, documents, business relationships and financial behaviour. RegTech simplifies this process by connecting directly with verified digital sources, like government databases, corporate registries, public records and watchlists, to pull accurate information instantly. For higher-risk profiles, enhanced due diligence becomes more reliable because technology eliminates inconsistencies, reduces human error and maintains a clear audit trail of every step taken. Institutions gain a more complete understanding of a customer’s background before onboarding them, lowering exposure to hidden risks.

Advanced KYC Verification Through Digital Data Sources

Know Your Customer checks rely heavily on accurate data. RegTech platforms integrate multiple APIs to validate PAN, Aadhaar-linked data, voter ID, passports, GST records, MCA profiles, Udyam registration and other digital documents in real time. This immediate cross-verification ensures that customer identities, business credentials and ownership details are correct at the point of onboarding. Structured digital intelligence, rather than physical document reviews, helps organisations achieve faster, cleaner and more scalable compliance.

AI-Driven Transaction Monitoring For Suspicious Activity

One of the biggest challenges in AML compliance is identifying unusual patterns hidden within millions of transactions. RegTech solutions use machine learning models to analyse behaviour rather than only static rules. These systems learn what “normal” activity looks like for each customer and flag anomalies such as rapid fund transfers, circular payments, unexpected cash deposits or transactions routed through high-risk jurisdictions. This leads to early detection of laundering attempts that traditional rule-based systems often miss.

Real-Time Sanctions And Watchlist Screening

Sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEP) databases and law-enforcement notices change frequently. Screening customers against these sources manually is slow and incomplete. RegTech automates continuous screening: any change to a watchlist is updated instantly across the institution’s compliance system. This ensures that a customer who becomes high-risk after onboarding is not unnoticed and that screening remains accurate throughout the relationship lifecycle.

Adverse Media And Ongoing Monitoring

Negative news, regulatory actions, legal disputes or financial misconduct can signal early warning signs. RegTech uses natural language processing to scan trusted news outlets, public disclosures and legal databases for any negative developments linked to a customer or connected entity. This capability helps institutions track reputational risks in real time rather than relying on periodic manual reviews.

Detecting Shell Companies And Beneficial Ownership Structures

Criminals frequently use shell companies to hide ownership and the flow of funds. RegTech platforms map corporate hierarchies, cross-reference directors and shareholders, analyse company registration data and detect inconsistencies in ownership declarations. By highlighting unusual relationships or unexplained linkages, these tools support deeper scrutiny of entities that may be used for laundering or tax evasion.

Benefits Of Using RegTech For AML Compliance

Lower False Positives And Better Alert Quality

Legacy-based AML systems often overwhelm compliance teams with alerts that turn out to be harmless. This slows investigations and diverts attention from cases that genuinely require scrutiny. RegTech improves alert quality by using machine learning models that distinguish between normal behavioural variation and genuine anomalies. Over time, these systems refine their accuracy through feedback loops, ensuring that investigators spend more time on high-risk cases rather than clearing avoidable alerts.

Faster Onboarding And A Smoother Customer Experience

Manual bulk verification processes can delay onboarding, increasing abandonment rates and straining customer relationships. With automated KYC, document checks and data validation, RegTech reduces onboarding times from days to minutes. Financial institutions can welcome customers with far less friction, while still maintaining strict compliance standards. This balance of speed and safety has become essential for banks, fintechs and digital lenders competing in a crowded market.

Stronger Internal Controls And Risk Management

Robust AML frameworks depend on consistency, yet manual processes vary across teams and branches. RegTech standardises due diligence, transaction monitoring, screening and reporting. It ensures that every check is carried out at the correct depth, in the correct order and under uniform rules. This creates a controlled environment where gaps are minimised and potential weaknesses are flagged early, strengthening the organisation’s overall risk posture.

Reduced Compliance Costs And Operational Burden

AML compliance is resource-intensive, requiring large teams to manage documentation, reviews, investigations and regulatory reporting. Automation reduces reliance on labour for repetitive tasks and enables analysts to focus on high-value decision-making. Institutions benefit from predictable compliance costs and better utilisation of skilled staff, while still meeting all regulatory expectations.

Improved Auditability And Regulatory Reporting

Regulators require clear, evidence-based documentation to verify whether an institution followed proper procedures. RegTech creates automatic logs of every action taken, from KYC checks to alert decisions, ensuring that the organisation has a complete, tamper-proof audit trail. Reporting modules generate structured outputs for suspicious transaction reports, cash transaction reports and periodic compliance summaries. This reduces the risk of errors and ensures timely submissions during regulatory reviews or investigations.

Key Technologies Behind AML RegTech Solutions

Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning

AI and machine learning lie at the heart of contemporary AML systems. They analyse vast volumes of structured and unstructured data to identify behaviours that do not match a customer’s usual profile. Unlike static rule-based engines, these models adapt as patterns evolve, enabling institutions to detect emerging risks more effectively. Machine learning models also support risk scoring, anomaly detection, and alert prioritisation, ensuring that compliance teams focus on the cases that matter most.

Natural Language Processing For Adverse Media Monitoring

Adverse media is often the first public sign that an individual or business may pose a financial or reputational risk. Natural language processing enables automated scanning of news articles, legal updates, regulatory announcements and industry publications. The technology interprets sentiment, context and relevance, filtering out irrelevant material and highlighting information that may warrant detailed review. This enhances the early-warning capability of AML programmes.

Graph Analytics For Network Risk Detection

Money laundering rarely occurs in isolation; it often involves networks of people, companies, intermediaries and accounts. Graph analytics enables institutions to visualise and analyse relationships across these entities. By mapping these connections, risk teams can detect suspicious clusters, hidden associations, funnel accounts or rapid-layering networks that traditional methods might overlook. This is particularly useful in identifying shell companies or complex beneficial ownership structures.

API-Based Data Integrations

Reliable compliance depends on accurate and up-to-date information. API integrations allow institutions to connect seamlessly with government databases, identity registries, corporate filings, sanctions lists and third-party intelligence providers. These integrations ensure that data validation, KYC checks and watchlist screening are carried out in real time. They also reduce manual entry errors and bring consistency across multiple channels and systems.

Cloud-Native Architecture For Scale And Reliability

AML workloads can vary significantly, especially when institutions deal with fluctuating transaction volumes. Cloud-native systems offer scalability, allowing organisations to increase or decrease computational resources as needed. They also improve resilience, ensure data redundancy and support secure access across distributed teams. Cloud infrastructure enables faster deployment of updates, making compliance systems more adaptable to regulatory changes.

RegTech Uses Across Financial Services

Banking

Banks face some of the most complex AML obligations due to high transaction volumes and diverse customer profiles. RegTech helps them automate onboarding, strengthen sanctions screening and detect suspicious flows across deposits, remittances and cross-border transfers. With behavioural analytics, banks can identify unusual activity within seconds rather than relying on periodic batch reviews. This significantly reduces exposure to regulatory breaches and financial crime.

Fintech

Fintech firms operate in fast-moving digital environments where onboarding must be seamless and compliant at the same time. RegTech equips them with automated KYC and instant identity verification, ensuring that customers are screened thoroughly without slowing the user experience. For digital-only platforms, continuous monitoring and automated reporting ensure compliance even with lean internal teams.

Payments

Payment companies process millions of micro-transactions daily, making manual surveillance impractical. RegTech solutions monitor patterns in real time, detecting anomalies such as repeated small-value transactions, rapid pass-through of funds or transfers involving high-risk jurisdictions. This strengthens consumer protection and reduces the risk of systems being exploited for laundering or fraud.

NBFCs And Digital Lending

Non-bank lenders face increasing scrutiny due to the rise of digital credit and the speed of loan approvals. RegTech supports them with end-to-end verification—identity checks, corporate background analysis, income validation and ongoing monitoring. Automated risk scoring helps lenders ensure that customers meet regulatory and internal risk standards before funds are disbursed.

Wealth And Asset Management

Wealth managers often handle high-value portfolios and must assess the legitimacy of funds entering investment products. RegTech helps identify politically exposed persons, screen investors thoroughly and ensure compliance with cross-border regulatory requirements. Enhanced due diligence tools reduce the risk of inadvertently onboarding clients with hidden financial or legal exposures.

Insurance

Insurers face money-laundering risks through premium payments, claim settlements and investment-linked products. RegTech enables insurance firms to verify customer identities, detect unusual claim behaviour and screen counterparties. Automated monitoring ensures that suspicious transactions are flagged early, particularly in sectors with complex payout structures.

Challenges Faced By Institutions Without RegTech

High Dependence On Manual Effort

AML processes still rely heavily on human-led reviews in many organisations. Analysts spend substantial time checking documents, validating identities, clearing alerts and compiling reports. As customer volumes rise and transaction patterns become more complex, this manual workload becomes unsustainable. The strain increases the likelihood of delays, fatigue-induced errors and inconsistent decision-making.

Disjointed Data And Limited Visibility

Legacy systems often store information in isolated repositories. KYC records may exist in one system, transaction data in another and watchlist results somewhere else entirely. Without a unified technology layer, investigators must manually stitch together fragments of information to form a complete picture. This slows investigations and heightens the risk of overlooking subtle but critical risk indicators.

Slow Identification Of Suspicious Patterns

Batch-based monitoring and periodic reviews create a significant time lag between the moment a risky transaction occurs and when it is detected. Money launderers intentionally exploit this delay by rapidly moving funds through multiple accounts. Institutions lacking real-time analytics struggle to identify abnormal behaviour early, allowing suspicious activity to progress unchecked.

Greater Exposure To Compliance Failures

Regulators expect institutions to maintain detailed audit trails, apply consistent due diligence and respond to emerging risks promptly. Manual processes make this difficult to guarantee. Missing documentation, inconsistent checks or delays in reporting can result in regulatory scrutiny, penalties and reputational damage. In sectors with strict supervisory regimes, such vulnerabilities carry considerable consequences.

Difficulty Adapting To Evolving Regulations

AML requirements change frequently — new sanctions lists, updated reporting norms, and revised beneficial ownership rules appear regularly. Without technology that updates screening protocols and workflows automatically, institutions must reconfigure processes manually. This slows their response to regulatory change and increases the possibility of non-compliance simply due to operational lag.

What To Look For When Choosing A RegTech AML Solution

Breadth And Reliability Of Data Coverage

A RegTech platform is only as effective as the data it draws upon. Institutions should look for solutions that connect to authoritative identity sources, corporate registries, sanctions lists, law-enforcement notices and adverse-media databases. Comprehensive data coverage allows for accurate verification and reduces the likelihood of gaps that criminals may exploit. Equally important is the frequency with which these sources are updated, as AML risks evolve rapidly.

Accuracy And Transparency Of Risk Scoring Models

Risk scoring lies at the core of automated AML decision-making. Organisations should choose solutions that offer well-documented, explainable models rather than opaque “black box” systems. Transparent methodologies allow compliance teams to understand why a customer or transaction has been flagged and provide regulators with clear justification. This ultimately builds trust in the system’s outcomes and supports sound investigative decisions.

Explainability Of AI And Ease Of Human Oversight

As regulators increasingly scrutinise the use of AI in compliance, platforms must offer a detailed rationale for their decisions. Institutions should prioritise technologies that balance automation with human oversight. Tools that highlight the factors influencing each alert or risk rating make investigations more efficient and reduce uncertainty during regulatory audits.

Integration Capabilities And Workflow Compatibility

AML systems rarely operate in isolation. Strong API capabilities ensure that the RegTech platform can integrate seamlessly with onboarding systems, core banking platforms, CRM tools and case-management modules. Smooth interoperability reduces operational friction, eliminates duplicate data entry and ensures that information flows consistently across the organisation.

Scalability, Performance And Cloud Readiness

As transaction volumes fluctuate, especially in digital-first businesses, scalability becomes essential. Cloud-native RegTech solutions offer flexibility, resilience and faster deployment of updates. They ensure that performance remains stable even during peak loads, maintaining real-time monitoring and timely alert generation.

Robust Audit Trails And Reporting Features

Regulators expect institutions to produce documentation that clearly demonstrates how AML decisions were made. Strong reporting capabilities, including automated suspicious transaction reports, activity summaries and audit logs, are essential. These features reduce manual workload, support rapid regulatory responses and maintain confidence in the organisation’s compliance posture.

The Future Of RegTech And AML Compliance

AI-First Supervision And Regulatory Expectations

Regulators around the world are increasingly adopting digital tools to supervise financial institutions. This shift means that AML frameworks must evolve at the same pace. As regulators apply analytics and automation to their own oversight processes, institutions will need equally sophisticated systems to provide timely, accurate and structured information. AI-first supervision will encourage greater transparency, demand cleaner data and reward firms that invest in robust digital compliance infrastructure.

Collaborative Data-Sharing Ecosystems

Money laundering networks exploit the lack of coordination between financial institutions. The future of AML is moving towards secure, privacy-preserving data-sharing models that allow organisations to identify risks collectively. RegTech platforms are expected to support mechanisms such as shared ledgers, federated learning and industry-wide typology exchanges. These collaborations can reveal patterns that no single institution could detect alone, strengthening the collective resilience of the financial system.

Automated Compliance As A Service

As regulations grow more intricate, smaller institutions often struggle to build fully fledged compliance operations. To address this gap, RegTech providers are moving towards “compliance as a service” models, offering end-to-end workflows that handle screening, monitoring, reporting and audit preparation. This approach lowers the barrier to strong AML governance, enabling even lean organisations to maintain a high standard of compliance without excessive internal investment.

Rise Of Real-Time AML Controls

Instant payments, digital lending and online onboarding have increased the speed at which money moves through the financial system. This trend requires AML controls that operate continuously rather than in scheduled batches. Real-time identity verification, ongoing sanctions monitoring and immediate behavioural analytics will become the norm rather than the exception. Institutions that fail to transition to real-time controls risk falling behind both regulatory expectations and criminal tactics.

Conclusion

RegTech has become an irreplaceable entity in modern AML compliance, offering the accuracy, speed and consistency that manual processes can no longer provide. By combining reliable data sources with intelligent analytics, institutions gain the ability to identify risks early, respond to regulatory demands with confidence and protect their systems from increasingly sophisticated financial crime. As regulations get stricter and digital finance grows, organisations that embrace advanced RegTech capabilities will be better placed to manage compliance efficiently, safeguard trust and build a stronger foundation for long-term resilience.

By Abhinandan, 2 weeksDecember 8, 2025 ago

BFSI

Detecting Mule Accounts with Behavioural Biometrics | A Complete 2025 Guide

Introduction

Financial crime in the digital economy has undergone a profound transformation over the past decade, with mule accounts emerging as one of the most pervasive and difficult-to-detect threats to banks, fintech companies and payment institutions. A mule account, in simple terms, is a bank account used—knowingly or unknowingly—to transfer, receive or layer proceeds of fraud or money laundering. What makes mule accounts particularly dangerous is not merely their role in facilitating illicit movement of funds, but the increasing sophistication of the networks that operate them and the near-industrial scale at which they are proliferating across regions.

In India alone, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported a 33% rise in digital payment frauds in FY 2023–24, with a significant share attributed to accounts later identified as part of mule networks. Globally, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) estimates that over US$1.6 trillion is laundered annually, a portion of which flows through mule accounts that serve as temporary holding and transit points during the layering phase of laundering. The rise of instant payments, BNPL models, neo-banking, gig economy payouts and micro-lending apps has created countless opportunities for fraudsters to exploit vulnerable individuals and create recruitment pipelines for new mules.

The challenge for banks and fintech companies is that traditional fraud controls—such as rule-based monitoring, static KYC, device fingerprinting and anomaly detection—are no longer sufficient. Mule accounts do not always exhibit overtly suspicious transactional patterns at the outset. Many are operated by first-time offenders, students, gig workers or financially vulnerable individuals whose behaviour blends in with millions of genuine customers. Fraudsters increasingly rely on “clean skins”—accounts with seemingly normal onboarding attributes but subtle behavioural anomalies during login, navigation, transaction authorisation or customer support interactions.

Against this backdrop, behavioural biometrics has emerged as a powerful additional layer in financial fraud detection. It provides the ability to analyse how a user interacts with a device or application—rather than relying solely on what information they provide. This behavioural layer captures micro-patterns that are extraordinarily difficult to fake or transfer, enabling institutions to detect mule activity even when identity documents, IP addresses and transaction flows appear normal. As mule networks grow more sophisticated, behavioural biometrics offers a way to identify risk through the “human layer”, revealing deviations that correlate strongly with coercion, account takeover, scripted behaviour or remote-control manipulation.

Understanding Behavioural Biometrics and Its Relevance to Mule Account Detection

Behavioral biometrics, unlike traditional forms of biometric identification such as facial recognition or fingerprint scanning, focuses on the patterns of behaviour that individuals exhibit when interacting with digital systems. These behavioural traits are subconscious, consistent and inherently difficult for fraudsters to replicate at scale. They include micro-patterns such as typing cadence, scroll velocity, swipe pressure, mouse trajectory, gyro-sensor movement, touchscreen rhythm, hesitation intervals and navigation sequences. Over time, these behaviours create a stable “behavioural signature” that can be used to differentiate legitimate users from coerced, compromised or fraudulent ones.

The technology behind behavioural biometrics relies on advanced machine learning models—often recurrent neural networks or deep sequence classifiers—that continuously learn and refine the behavioural profile of each user. According to a 2024 study by the MIT Media Lab, behavioural biometrics provide 92–98% accuracy when distinguishing between genuine users and impostors, with accuracy improving further when layered with device intelligence and session context. Because these behavioural signals do not depend on physical attributes or static identifiers, they remain highly effective even when users change devices or locations, making them extremely valuable in fraud scenarios involving mule networks.

Mule accounts often behave differently from genuine customer accounts, not because of the identity submitted during onboarding, but because the real operator of the account demonstrates behaviour inconsistent with that identity. For instance, mule accounts are frequently accessed from different devices than the ones used to open the account. Fraudsters may control accounts remotely using remote-access tools (RATs), resulting in abnormal cursor speed, abrupt navigation jumps, or robotic scrolling patterns. Behavioural biometrics excels at identifying these anomalies. In fact, BioCatch’s 2023 Fraud Trends Report highlighted that nearly 48% of mule accounts analysed displayed behavioural inconsistencies within the first 72 hours of activation, even though their KYC documents appeared clean.

The relevance of behavioural biometrics becomes even more pronounced in instant payment ecosystems. With the rise of UPI in India, Faster Payments in the UK and instant SEPA transactions in Europe, financial institutions have seconds—not hours—to detect mule-related anomalies. Behavioural biometrics provides real-time intelligence that helps institutions identify risk signals as they occur, thereby preventing illicit fund flows before they leave the banking perimeter. A study conducted by the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre found that instant payment fraud increased by 22% in 2023, with nearly one-fifth of accounts involved showing abnormal behavioural markers prior to the fraudulent transaction. This reinforces the argument that behavioural biometrics is no longer a niche technology but a practical necessity for institutions fighting sophisticated mule networks.

Why Mule Accounts Are Hard to Detect Using Traditional Methods

Detecting mule accounts in India has become increasingly challenging as digital payments penetrate every layer of society and financial services become more accessible through smartphones. Traditional fraud detection mechanisms—largely built around static KYC checks, rule-based transaction monitoring, device fingerprinting and manual reviews—were designed for a slower, branch-led banking environment. In today’s hyper-digital India, where over 131 billion UPI transactions were recorded in 2023 alone (NPCI), these legacy controls struggle to keep pace with the velocity, volume and variety of mule behaviours.

A fundamental limitation of traditional KYC processes is that they validate identity only once—at the point of onboarding. In India, where Aadhaar-based eKYC enables near-instant account creation, fraudsters exploit this speed by onboarding “clean” identities obtained through leaks, social engineering or purchase from illegal identity markets. The identity documents may be genuine, but the account is controlled by a fraudulent actor. This phenomenon has been repeatedly observed by cybercrime units in states like Telangana and Karnataka, where a surge of fraudulent loan app scams in 2022–2023 involved thousands of legitimate Aadhaar-linked accounts being repurposed as mule accounts, often without the knowledge of the account-holder.

Traditional transaction monitoring systems also face structural challenges in India. Rule-based systems typically flag transactions that exceed predefined thresholds, follow unusual timings or involve suspicious geographies. However, mule accounts involved in UPI, wallet and IMPS frauds often engage in micro-transactions designed to bypass these static rules. For example, the Maharashtra Cyber Cell found that mule accounts used in “digital job frauds” frequently transferred illicit funds in multiple low-value transactions, avoiding scrutiny while moving large sums within minutes. With UPI enabling instant transfers across banks, these patterns unfold too quickly for manual or semi-automated systems to respond in real time.

Device fingerprinting, once a widely used defence mechanism, has also lost effectiveness in the Indian context. Fraudsters increasingly rely on parallel ecosystems of burner phones, cloned devices, virtual machines and spoofed device IDs. In a 2024 report by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), investigators revealed that nearly 40% of mule accounts associated with loan app frauds were accessed through multiple devices, often using identical remote-access tools. This makes device-based risk scoring unreliable, as the same device signature may be shared by dozens of mule operators.

Geographical markers—such as IP-based location analysis—are equally unreliable in India. The widespread use of VPNs, public Wi-Fi networks, shared mobile hotspots and remote device control applications masks the real location of the mule operator. Fraud syndicates operating from outside India, particularly in Southeast Asia, exploit cloud-hosted infrastructure to access Indian bank accounts without triggering geolocation red flags. Law enforcement agencies reported in 2023 that thousands of Indian mule accounts were operated from call centres in Dubai, Cambodia and Laos, demonstrating how easily traditional geolocation fences can be bypassed.

Finally, manual investigation capacity in India is limited compared to the scale of digital fraud. Banks often rely on internal fraud teams that are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of alerts generated daily. A 2023 EY–FICCI report noted that Indian banks experience up to 40% false positives in their fraud monitoring systems, which leads to investigative fatigue and delayed action. Mule accounts thrive in this environment because their transactional signatures blend in with millions of legitimate low-value financial activities occurring daily, making them difficult to prioritise.

How Behavioural Biometrics Helps Detect Mule Accounts in the Indian Context

One of the most powerful advantages of behavioural biometrics is its ability to detect coerced or remote-controlled behaviour—both of which are common in Indian mule networks. In many fraud schemes uncovered by state cybercrime units, mule accounts were operated using remote-access applications such as AnyDesk, TeamViewer or Android mirroring tools. These methods leave subtle but detectable behavioural traces: perfectly linear mouse movement, abrupt cursor jumps, uniform swiping rhythms and unnatural typing patterns. Behavioural biometric systems can flag such anomalies within seconds. A 2023 BioCatch study found that over 52% of mule accounts in Asia exhibited “RAT behaviour signatures”, where operator movements mirrored the pattern of remote desktop control rather than natural human interaction.

India’s multilingual, device-diverse and socio-economically varied digital ecosystem also makes behavioural biometrics uniquely advantageous. Genuine customers have stable, personal behaviour patterns that remain consistent despite changes in device, network or environment. Mule operators, however, frequently switch between devices, use cloud-based emulators or operate multiple accounts from the same hardware. In a 2024 report by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), investigators found that nearly 60% of mule accounts showed inconsistent behavioural patterns within the first fortnight of usage, a finding strongly aligned with behavioural biometric risk indicators.

Importantly, behavioural biometrics integrates seamlessly with India’s instant payment infrastructure. Given that fraudulent UPI flows often occur within a 5–15 second window, banks cannot rely on manual or traditional monitoring systems to respond in time. Behavioural biometrics provides real-time risk scoring, enabling platforms to challenge or block suspect transactions before funds are irreversibly transferred. According to a 2023 Deloitte India survey, banks that deployed behavioural biometrics saw a 35–48% reduction in mule account-related fraud attempts, highlighting its growing relevance as a frontline defence in India’s digital banking ecosystem.

Key Behavioural Indicators That Banks Can Use to Flag Mule Accounts

Building on the behavioural and contextual anomalies seen in India’s fraud patterns, the detection of mule accounts using behavioural biometrics hinges on recognising subtle cognitive and motor deviations in app, web or device interactions. These signals do not rely on explicit identity markers — their value lies in how strongly they correlate with intent, coercion, operator-switching and fraudulent session control.

Below are the key categories of behavioural indicators that banks and fintechs can incorporate into their mule detection strategies:

1. Cognitive Strain Signatures

Coerced or fraudulent operators exhibit micro-behavioural signs of stress, hesitation and decision lag.
Examples include:

delayed response time before clicking key transaction buttons
repeated navigation back-and-forth between screens
inconsistent typing cadence when entering sensitive data or PINs
abrupt scroll pauses when reading legal statements or warnings

In 2024, the I4C observed that mule accounts tied to extortion-based job scams displayed abnormally long “thinking intervals” at the point of transaction confirmation, especially when the operator was following instructions from remote handlers.

2. Deviations in Device Interaction Consistency

Every genuine customer builds a behavioural baseline over time — swipe pressure, typing patterns, or PIN-entry rhythm.
Mule accounts break these patterns through:

sudden shift in typing cadence
different keyboard layouts
inconsistent scroll friction
altered mouse trajectory curvature

Banks in South India that deployed behavioural biometrics noted that accounts subsequently flagged as mule-linked exhibited device-interaction variance 2.5X higher than normal retail users within the same 90-day window.

3. Remote-Control & Emulation Indicators

RAT-controlled sessions and emulator-based access leave strong behavioural traces:

near-linear mouse strokes
zero inertia scrolling
perfectly timed keystrokes
uniform cursor acceleration
absence of micro-corrections normally seen in human movement

BioCatch benchmarks indicate that machine-assisted sessions can exhibit up to 40–65% fewer micro-movement anomalies than normal users, making them instantly distinguishable under behavioural scrutiny.

4. Multi-Operator Signature Conflicts

Mule accounts rarely belong to a single operator. They may be jointly run by:

recruitment syndicates
tele-fraud callers
cyber gangs
payment intermediaries

This results in sudden behavioural “identity swaps” such as:

different grip pressure on the device
varying hand orientation signatures
conflicting scroll patterns
typing styles indicative of multiple users

In 2023, a Mumbai-based fintech collaborating with state cyber-law enforcement found that almost 62% of mule accounts under investigation showed sequential changes in operator style within the same day — a key hallmark for detection systems.

5. High-Velocity Intent Patterns

Mule operators typically have high intent when transacting and low engagement in other areas of the application.
This behavioural pattern often reflects:

direct navigation to fund transfer screens
bypassing of savings, loan or product pages
minimal browsing history
rapid exit after successful transfer

Whereas genuine users show broader exploratory trails, mule operators are task-driven, often mirroring scripted navigation instructions.

6. Behavioural Mismatch with Onboarding Persona

India’s fraud ecosystem frequently recruits young students, migrant workers and gig earners to open accounts, while real operators are older, professionally trained cybercriminals.

Behavioural AI picks this discrepancy by correlating:

scroll friction patterns
latency during text entry
average pressure & rhythm
biometric-style markers of cognitive maturity

These produce strong “persona mismatch” scores, now being used in multiple Asian banking systems to route high-risk accounts for deeper review.

How Behavioural Profiling Integrates with AML, Transaction Monitoring & UPI Rails

Traditional Anti-Money Laundering (AML) frameworks were built around attribute-level checks — verifying identity, monitoring transaction thresholds, scanning against sanctions lists, and tracing fund-flow anomalies. But mule networks today operate beneath those layers, blending seamlessly with compliant onboarding credentials and micro-transaction patterns that mimic genuine consumer activity.

Behavioural biometrics introduces a new stream of intelligence that complements AML, UPI risk rails and transaction monitoring by enriching decision-making at critical checkpoints:

1. Pre-Transaction KYC Risk Scoring

While AML relies on static onboarding attributes, behavioural biometrics builds a parallel “human authenticity” score.
During login, session initiation or profile modification, behavioural signals confirm whether the account operator is the same person who originally onboarded.

Banks can automatically:

increase AML risk weight
re-run PEP/negative list scans
initiate enhanced due diligence (EDD)

for accounts exhibiting behavioural drift, persona mismatches or remote-control indicators.

2. Behavioural Data as a Trigger for Transaction Monitoring

Transaction monitoring systems primarily rely on monetary thresholds, timing rules and destination mapping.
Behavioural triggers enrich this by detecting intent and control.

For example:

If UPI transfer looks “normal” in value and timing
but the device movements match RAT patterns or coerced operator traits,

the transaction can be escalated, auto-held or revalidated.

UPI PSPs and acquiring banks are increasingly routing suspicious real-time sessions into additional verification challenges based on behavioural anomalies alone.

3. Linking Behavioural Identity with AML Network Graphs

AML network engines today map:

common beneficiaries
money movement loops
shared devices
cluster IPs

Behavioural profiles add another node layer:

✔ operator-movement fingerprint
✔ typing signatures
✔ navigation rhythm

When the same mule controller operates multiple accounts across banks, even using different identities and devices, the behavioural layer exposes linkages invisible to pure data-driven AML tools.

This dramatically reduces the “multi-bank blind spot” that mule networks exploit.

4. Instant Risk-Scoring for UPI Rails

UPI transactions clear in seconds. That leaves no time for batch AML checks.

Behavioural risk engines generate:

live operator authenticity scores
RAT threat markers
device-emulation confidence flags
coercion probability models

within the same session window in which a UPI transaction is being authorised.

Banks can:

hold payouts
add secondary authentication
disable AutoPay mandates
block high-risk beneficiary additions

in milliseconds — long before laundering is completed.

5. Strengthening Suspicious Transaction Reporting (STR)

Behavioural indicators are strong grounds under RBI and FATF guidance for filing STRs, especially when traditional evidence is insufficient.

When AML analysts see behavioural drift that matches known mule typologies:

inconsistent operator signatures
rapid KYC-to-activity abnormalities
behavioural mismatch with declared persona

it can be added as reinforcement evidence in STR narratives, enhancing investigative confidence and regulatory defensibility.

6. Behavioural Biometrics as a Fraud & AML Convergence Layer

Indian regulators are increasingly nudging BFSI institutions toward unified fraud-risk and AML stacks, especially for UPI.

Behavioural profiling supports this convergence through:

shared risk analytics
consolidated investigation workbenches
reduction of false positives
stronger case-building against mule operators, job scam syndicates and laundering networks

It enables banks to make risk decisions with the who, not just the what behind an account’s activity.

How AuthBridge Can Help Banks & Fintechs Detect Mule Accounts

As mule networks evolve, institutions need multi-layered identity assurance that goes far beyond basic eKYC.
AuthBridge strengthens mule-risk intelligence through identity grounding, data triangulation, network exposure checks and onboarding risk scoring, helping financial institutions validate whether the person behind an account is traceable, legitimate and historically clean.

Here are the pillars of how AuthBridge fits in:

1. Strong Foundational Identity Anchoring

Mules thrive when they:

onboard using bogus documents
exploit identity leaks
misuse credentials belonging to vulnerable individuals

AuthBridge eliminates weak onboarding by running:

Aadhaar‐based identity checks (where permissible)
PAN & OVD validation
liveness-bound face match
document authenticity checks
official data-source match

When identity anchor is clean, behavioural analytics from the institution becomes far more reliable — eliminating false positives caused by synthetic or spoofed onboarding.

2. Data Triangulation to Validate True Persona

Mule accounts often provide:

patchy employment data
non-residential addresses
fake references
invalid active phone/email trails

AuthBridge strengthens verification through correlations across:

employment history
HR reference checks
address validation
phone & email existence checks
GST/UDYAM/ROC entity lookups (for merchant onboarding)

If behavioural analytics says “risk anomaly”, and triangulated persona signals also look weak or unverifiable → likelihood of mule risk dramatically rises.

3. Court, Criminal, Cyber & Compliance Screening

Many mule handlers and repeat offenders surface in:

cybercrime FIRs
fraud-linked charge sheets
CIBIL delinquency patterns
court proceedings

AuthBridge’s screening database and bureau-linked filters help flag:

prior fraud listings
criminal prosecution history
identity misuse complaints

This provides AML teams “ground truth” context alongside behavioural anomalies.

4. Device, Contact & Address Intelligence (Where Available)

When banks supply device or session-level metadata, AuthBridge can correlate it against known red-flag parameters from our verification ecosystem:

repetitive addresses tied to multiple high-risk profiles
common employment references among unrelated applicants
shared phone/email identifiers
multiple identities referencing the same coordinates

These linkages are often strong signals of mule syndicates and job-fraud factories.

AuthBridge does not generate behavioural signals but can connect the dots around identity clusters triggered by behavioural suspicion.

5. Bureau-Grade Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) Triggers

When behavioural risk is high, platforms need to quickly increase scrutiny of the operator.
AuthBridge can power EDD in minutes, including:

physical address verification
criminal court check
employment verifier calls
litigation search
identity re-verification

If a mule handler is masquerading as a clean applicant, these deeper checks expose cracks fast.

6. Automated Document, Profile & Pattern Red-Flagging

AuthBridge flags identity inconsistencies that strongly correlate with mule behaviour:

multiple conflicting addresses
mismatched employment timelines
unverifiable company references
extremely short employment history
use of high-fraud-density addresses
sudden identity attribute change during re-KYC

When this aligns with behavioural risk anomalies → the probability of mule operation spikes.

7. Consent, Data Security & Auditable Evidence

Behavioural triggers alone are often not considered sufficient grounds for STR filing.
Banks need traceable, regulatory-defensible evidence.
AuthBridge strengthens STR narratives by providing:

verified identities
historical documentation
location & address proof
court or negative record data
employer confirmations
timestamped audit trails

This materially strengthens FIU-IND submissions and internal AML investigations.

By Siddharth, 3 weeks ago

Passport Verification record now available on DigiLocker

Background Checks

Passport Verification Record (PVR) Now Available On DigiLocker

Passport Verification Record DigiLocker Update

On 3 December 2025, Digital India announced through its official X account that citizens can now access their Passport Verification Record (PVR) through DigiLocker. For the first time, a verification record linked to the passport process is accessible directly through a widely used government digital platform. As per Digilocker’s official page, “Passport Seva (passportindia.gov.in) issues Passports to Indian citizens. Now, Passport Verification Record (PVR) is readily available to be securely pulled by respective holders into their DigiLocker account.”

DigiLocker already plays an important role in India’s digital documentation ecosystem by storing documents directly issued by government ministries and departments. The Passport Seva portal, under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), is one of DigiLocker’s authorised issuers.

This update makes the verification record visible to the applicant and places it in the same secure environment where Aadhaar, PAN, driving licences and other official documents are stored.

The service has been enabled by:

National e-Governance Division (NeGD)
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)

What Is A Passport Verification Record (PVR)?

The Passport Verification Record is the document generated after the verification process during a passport application. It captures the verification stage completed by the authorities before a passport is issued or reissued. Until now, this record was not directly available to the applicant in digital form.

With the update, the PVR becomes accessible through DigiLocker once issued by the passport authority. The record can then be stored, viewed and accessed alongside other official documents that citizens frequently use.

How To Add A Passport To DigiLocker In 5 Steps?

Although the PVR is issued digitally, the passport itself can also be stored in DigiLocker as a user-uploaded document. This is done through DigiLocker’s standard upload function.

Steps to upload a passport on DigiLocker:

Log in to the DigiLocker website or mobile application.
Go to the “Uploaded Documents” or “Upload Documents” section.
Select “Passport” from the available document types.
Upload a scanned copy or image of the passport.
Save the file in DigiLocker.

Links to download the DigiLocker app:

1. Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.digilocker.android

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/digilocker/id1320618078

Benefits of Accessing The PVR Through DigiLocker

Instant access on the web or mobile

Users can retrieve their PVR whenever required, without visiting an office or searching for physical paperwork.

No physical copies or attestation required

The digital version removes the need for photocopies, printouts or attested paper documents.

Secure, tamper-proof digital record

Since DigiLocker stores only authentic documents from authorised issuers, the PVR remains protected and reliable.

Easy sharing with authorised institutions

Citizens can share the PVR digitally, where accepted, reducing turnaround time in verification processes.

Supports paperless and green governance

Digital access helps minimise the use of paper and encourages environmentally responsible practices.

Role of Passport Information In Background Verification

In employment and third-party onboarding, the passport is one of the most commonly submitted identity documents. It supports identity checks, address verification and nationality confirmation. The availability of the PVR in DigiLocker gives the individual an additional verification-related document that can be used where relevant.

Although the update does not change the background-verification process itself, having access to an officially issued digital record strengthens transparency. When the PVR is available, it adds a clear, traceable document to the user’s digital identity profile, which can assist in smoother verification journeys where organisations accept DigiLocker-based records.

For verification companies, like AuthBridge, updates that improve document accessibility and authenticity contribute to faster and more reliable screening, especially in sectors that prioritise secure identity documentation.

Conclusion

The introduction of the Passport Verification Record in DigiLocker is a significant step in giving citizens better access to passport-related records. With support from NeGD, MeitY and the Ministry of External Affairs, the update makes the PVR available through a trusted digital platform that millions of users already depend on.

By making the PVR easier to access, store and share, this update strengthens digital documentation practices and supports India’s transition towards efficient, citizen-friendly public services. It also provides individuals and organisations with a secure, consistent way to refer to an important verification record when required.

By Abhinandan, 3 weeksDecember 4, 2025 ago

Employee Screening

Risk & Compliance

Financial Intelligence

Identity Verification

Utilities

Employment

Entity/Business Level

Professional

Banking & Payments

Fraud Detection

Background Verification

Due-Diligence

Resource Library

Featured Resource

Introduction To ESG Audit

What Is An ESG Audit?

The Importance & Need Of ESG Audit In India

How ESG Audits Help In Business Sustainability

Important ESG Standards And Reporting Frameworks

SEBI Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR)

Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity Target Rules 2025

GHG Protocol

ISO 14001:2015

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

How ESG Audits Help Companies Comply with Regulatory Requirements

Ensuring Compliance with India’s GHG Emission Intensity Target Rules

Supporting Compliance with SEBI’s BRSR Guidelines

Aligning with International Standards: GRI, SASB, and ISO 14001

The Role of TCFD in Climate Risk Management

Steps Involved In ESG Audits

1. Understand the ESG Landscape

2. Define Scope & Objectives of the Audit

3. Stakeholder Engagement & Data Collection

4. Materiality & Risk Assessment

5. Select ESG Audit Frameworks

6. Audit Fieldwork & Evidence Verification

7. Evaluate Against Standards

8. Report Findings & Recommendations

9. Follow-up & Continuous Improvement

Why Should Companies Invest In ESG Audits?

The Growing Pressure To Comply With New Regulations

Building Investor Trust and Gaining Market Confidence

Operational Efficiency and Long-Term Value

Enhancing Reputation and Customer Loyalty

How AuthBridge Helps Streamline ESG Audits For Businesses In India?

Conclusion

Understanding The Concept Of A Money Mule

Common Red Flags That Indicate Money Mule Risk

Legal And Financial Consequences Of Being A Money Mule

Long-Term Impact Of Money Mule Involvement

Key Long-Term Impacts

Conclusion: Why Awareness of Money Mule Risks Matters More Than Ever

What Are Dormant Bank Accounts?

RBI Guidelines On Unclaimed Deposits

What Is Dormant Account Reactivation, And How To Reactivate Dormant Accounts?

How Can Banks Expedite Dormant Account Reactivation Using AuthBridge’s Solution

1. Real‑Time, Risk‑Aligned Contact Validation

2. Pan‑India Coverage with Seamless Scalability

3. Integrated Digital and On‑Ground Verification

4. Audit‑Ready Records and Compliance Confidence

5. Faster Turnaround, Reduced Operational Cost

6. Enhanced Risk Management

Conclusion

OnboardX

Key Enhancements:

iBridge

Key Enhancements:

TruthScreen

Key Enhancements:

Introduction

How RegTech Strengthens Anti-Money Laundering Frameworks

Automating Customer Due Diligence And Enhanced Due Diligence

Advanced KYC Verification Through Digital Data Sources

AI-Driven Transaction Monitoring For Suspicious Activity

Real-Time Sanctions And Watchlist Screening

Adverse Media And Ongoing Monitoring

Detecting Shell Companies And Beneficial Ownership Structures