KYC (Know Your Customer) has always been an integral part of the due diligence process to validate the customer’s identity and find out if there are any risks or frauds. With the advent of time, Video KYC is now the latest way to carry out the KYC process in real time.
What is Video KYC?
As the name suggests, Video KYC is done through an online video call assisted by a KYC expert for real-time verification of customers, vendors, suppliers, and other third parties. It is a solution that ensures contactless and real-time identity verification and helps businesses stay compliant with the changing regulatory landscape.
In 2020, when the world tackled the COVID-19 crisis, businesses across industries face various challenges in striking a balance between security and seamless customer onboarding. Traditional verification, we can also say manual verification, was surrounded by multiple challenges associated with complexity, high TAT, and operational costs. This resulted in organizations joining the digital onboarding bandwagon and opting for video KYC to simplify verifications at scale, reduce operational costs, and enable contactless customer onboarding.
Video KYC vs Traditional KYC – Which is better?
Earlier, organizations used to have a manual CIP – Customer Identification Program to verify customer identity at the time of onboarding. This process could take up to weeks or even months, making customers leave the process in the middle – leading to high funnel dropouts and increasing cart abandonment.
Video KYC verification is the digital version of the traditional KYC process which is much faster and seamless. It eliminates the mundane paperwork and validates identity in real time – making the entire process easier for both parties.
Video KYC
- Real-time verification of customers, business partners, and third-parties
- Digital documentation, submission, and verification
- Much faster, seamless, and cost-effective
- Low turnaround time – less than 2-10 minutes
Traditional KYC
- No real-time verification of customers, business partners, and third-parties
- Manual paperwork, document submission, and physical visits for verification
- Time-taking and high costs
- High turnaround time – can take days, weeks, or even months
A step-by-step process – how to do Video KYC
- The process starts when the end customer/third-party registers on the platform. It involves capturing customers’ live photos with valid KYC documents. The entire process is done by a trained official.
- The customer will receive a video call assisted by a KYC expert for face-to-face interaction.
- The KYC expert will screen the customer for liveness detection
- During the call, the KYC expert will ask for an identity document – generally Aadhar Card, Pan Card, Driving License, or any other government KYC document to validate the identity in real-time.
- The KYC expert validates if the photo in the identity document resembles the face of the customer in the video call. The process utilizes facial recognition capabilities.
- The document is verified against forged and tempered elements.
- The expert will also verify the real-time location of the customer using geo-tagging software.
- Verification results are delivered.
- The video is recorded and stored for future use.
There are a set of guidelines issued by central banking authorities for customer onboarding and identification. All the guidelines must be in place when performing remote verification of customers through a Video-Based Identification Process (VBIP). The guidelines are issued in light of Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) standards to protect financial entities and businesses from unforeseen operational, regulatory, and compliance risks.
AuthBridge is India’s largest authentication and background verification company. If you are interested in Video KYC or any other verification solutions for your business, share your contact details below.
