Identity Document Verification Can Fortify Fraud Defenses

Digital document verification presents a formidable defense against fraud and gives businesses a sense of certainty in meeting regulatory requirements. 

It can be difficult, though, for businesses to navigate the verification market and leverage the technology in ways that best meet their needs. The “Introduction to Identity Document Verification” buyer’s guide can help by taking a deep dive into the state-of-the-art technology and providing best practices for evaluating potential partners.

The Document Verification Process

Document verification builds onboarding certainty through the credibility of government-issued documents, the reassurance of facial biometrics and the accuracy of automated artificial intelligence.

Verification typically starts with a person taking a picture of a driver’s license, passport, national ID card or other identity document. The person then submits a live selfie for comparison with the image on the document.

Image-capture quality often determines verification accuracy. Photo environments may have poor lighting, or the user might have an old mobile device or make a mistake.

Document verification requires active participation from the customer, and that can create friction. That places user experience during image capture high on the list of priorities when evaluating potential partners.

After image capture, back-end processes compare the document image to corresponding government templates and check for evidence of tampering. Face detection algorithms help ensure the selfie image matches the document portrait.

The analysis also includes checks for document security features – such as microprints, watermarks or holograms – and data extraction for comparison with independent sources.

Key Considerations for Buyers

There are thousands of identity document types and formats around the world, so it’s vital to make sure a potential partner provides coverage in areas where the business operates.

It’s also important to assess image-capture precision, selfie comparison technology and the quality of the process instructions for customers. If those elements are incorporated into automated document verification, businesses can accelerate onboarding by sidestepping the delays associated with manual processes.

Collaborative partners offer insights into the performance and probabilistic decision-making of their artificial intelligence and machine learning models. That transparency helps businesses learn more about accuracy, reliability and adherence to regulations, privacy laws and ethical standards..

Other evaluation questions include:

• Are verification results available in real time with detailed descriptions of the types of checks and reasons for acceptance or rejection?
• What other verification methods does the potential partner provide? 
• How do those methods integrate with the business’s systems and services? 
• How easy is it to adjust verification workflows to optimize performance?

Choosing the Right Partner

A comprehensive identity platform can provide document, biometric and data verification services in one place. That allows companies to build document and data verification into dynamic workflows so customers with different risk profiles can be routed through either or both methods.

A collaborative partner can learn a business’s needs and provide the right integrations and workflows. That includes growth strategies, compliance requirements and budget.

Identity document verification isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it tool. It requires continual optimization to match the evolving fraud, compliance and macroeconomic landscape.

A strong identity document verification partner will understand that and arrive with a long-term strategy and a commitment evolving with a business.