Financial service providers can now carry out know your customer checks via a video call
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will now allow financial services providers to verify the identity of new customers using a video call instead of in-person identification checks, according to a report in The Economic Times. To keep onboarding costs down, an employee of the financial institution can remotely vet a customer’s identity using a PAN card (showing the permanent account number used to identify tax payers) or an Aadhaar card (the new national ID system) and a series of questions, as long as they also ensure the customer is physically present within the country, by capturing their geo-coordinates.
The RBI suggests that financial service providers also make use of advanced technologies to ensure the identification process is robust. “Regulated entities are encouraged to take the assistance of the latest available technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) and face matching technologies, to ensure the integrity of the process as well as the information furnished by the customer,” it said, according to The Economic Times.
Meanwhile, the Government of New South Wales in Australia is encouraging businesses to accept its new digital driver’s licenses as a form of identification when opening a bank account, renting a car, entering a licensed venue and other routine tasks. The government reported that citizens had downloaded more than one million digital driver’s licenses to their mobile handsets (equating to 19% of license holders) since the launch of the new format in November 2019, according to a report in ITnews.
“The ultimate vision is for people to be confident going wallet free, knowing that the digital driver’s license will be accepted in most situations where a driver’s license is required for proof of identity,” said Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello.
For more information, see The Economic Times report here and the ITnews report here.