The introduction of high-speed internet, increasing adoption of smartphones, and now the global pandemic has made individuals reclusive. In other terms, face-to-face interactions are now deemed as a waste of time which poses a huge hurdle for the financial services industry when it comes to document verification. 

The Problem

To put it simply, identity information is an individual’s claim they are a specific person. For obvious reasons, this claim cannot be taken at face value and has to be backed up by making document checks.  If this is not done, fraudsters can be onboarded which could cause the company to face numerous lawsuits and monetary damages.

Identity document verification involves matching a person’s personal information against official ID documents. Valid documents include, but are not limited to:

1. Government-issued ID cards
2. Credit/debit cards
3. Bank statements
4. Utility bills
5. Driver’s license
6. Rent agreement
7. Tax bill
8. Employer’s letter

By collecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as the customer’s name, date of birth, address, etc., and verifying it against the ID documents provided, document verification services can easily facilitate legitimate customers and enhance their experiences.

Defining Document Verification

Document verification refers to the process of validating an ID document provided by a customer. Authorized documents, such as ID cards are commonly being verified by financial institutions on a daily basis. Authentication of a document involves validating not just the PII, but also document features such as:

• Date of issuance and expiry
• Stamps
• Signature
• Rainbow prints
• Holograms
• Watermarks
• Font format
• Style and type of the document 

Conventional methods of verification required customers to physically visit a branch to carry out activities such as account opening, loan applications, insurance claims, etc. however, thanks to the advent of digital banking, the process has become more convenient. All the customers have to do is upload an image holding an ID document. For better experiences, an option of video verification is also provided to make online document verification even more convenient and efficient. 

The Process

To get verified online and carry out numerous banking transactions remotely, the following steps have to be carried out:

Step 1: The customer is asked to take or upload an image of an ID document. This includes official documents such as a government-issued ID card, passport, driver’s license, credit/debit card, etc. 

Step 2: Information from the card is automatically extracted through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology within seconds

Step 3: The customer can also be asked to upload a selfie in real-time to verify it against the picture present in the ID document

Step 4: If the ID document is legitimate and matches the selfie, the customer is onboarded. In the event of illegitimate documents being provided, services are denied to the end-user

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence

On a regular basis, banks open numerous accounts. They simply cannot facilitate an entire workforce that is solely committed to authenticating digital images and videos provided by the customers. This is where artificial intelligence and automation step in. 

Automated systems backed by artificial intelligence algorithms lead the customers through a simple step-by-step process through which their identity can be verified within a few seconds. Simultaneously in the background, the physical characteristics of the customer are matched against the ID documents to detect legitimate identities. 

This has proven to be a more practical and effective approach to customer identity verification as compared to its manual counterpart. With document verification solutions in place, financial institutions can spot forgeries, weed out criminals and provide better services to their loyal customer base. In case of need, however, manual document verification can be added as an extra layer of protection. 

Here are some of the factors that an AI-powered document verification system takes into account solution:

• Data consistency, such as verifying the customer’s full name, issuance, and expiry date, etc. against official databases
• Detection of forgery or manipulation, such as modification of the original ID image, missing holograms, or fake signatures
• A three-dimensional view of the document is gained online
• Crumpled or folded edges and blurry images are also identified to check for signs of manipulation or alteration
• The overall quality of provided ID document is enhanced and the validity is checked in a much quicker manner