The Future is Mobile – And Digital ID

Our digital identities are becoming increasingly more important as we transition to a mobile-first world. These identities shape the way we talk, trade and transact online. For organizations and businesses around the world, harnessing the power of digital identities is a crucial element of doing business – particularly when it comes to meeting various compliance and customer due diligence (CDD) requirements.

For players in the eCommerce space – including merchant acquirers and online marketplaces – instant, electronic identity verification for businesses and consumers is a top priority. When onboarding new merchants it’s important to perform due diligence to help mitigate risk, prevent fraud and comply with regulatory compliance obligations, such Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules.

In order for the enormous potential of eCommerce to be realised, consumer trust is critical. Of late, the digital identity market has been thriving – but challenges remain.

Why is digital identity such an important topic?

Without reliable and trusted data, companies have to spend countless hours manually checking and cross-referencing multiple data sources to verify customer identities to meet AML and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.

However, with the right tools – these cumbersome processes can be avoided. For example, Trulioo’s bank-grade electronic identity verification platform, GlobalGateway, enables clients to instantly verify five billion people and 250 million businesses from nearly every country in the world through a single API. At Trulioo we offer secure access to a global marketplace of identity information, so businesses and organizations can dispense with these, archaic, costly, time-consuming processes of old.

With ever-expanding AML/KYC compliance requirements, access to an increasing number of databases is necessary in order to deliver cross-border compliance. Approximately 300 million pages of regulatory documents are expected to publish by 2020. This, compiled with the fact that between 2008 and 2016, there was a 500 percent increase in regulatory changes in developed markets, highlights the significant need for scalable, efficient, reliable RegTech solutions.

With our data marketplace, our clients have information from over 400 partners at their fingertips – all available through one contract and one solution.  Not only do we enable businesses to verify individuals and business entities from all over the world – we also allow our clients to layer electronic identity verification capabilities with document verification and facial recognition technology in order to ensure they have a robust and comprehensive technology stack at their disposal.

What about mobile?

Mobile identification is an area that is experiencing explosive growth. Earlier this year, we announced we now offer a MobileID solution – another crucial element in the mosaic of identity. This new and reliable identity verification source is a game-changer, leveraging some of the world’s largest mobile network operators to advance our mission to break down identity verification barriers and ensure organizations can access hard-to-reach markets.

What are the challenges facing the market?

One of the challenges is procuring reliable data in the aforementioned hard-to-reach markets. In advance economies, we largely take for granted the availability of data that can be used for identity verification. Some of these data sources include credit bureaus, governments, consumer files, and utility bills. However, in developing countries where identity infrastructure does not exist, alternative sources must be relied upon for the purpose of identity verification.

Overcoming obstacles

The team at Trulioo is dedicated to helping provide access to financial services to the underserved – otherwise known as the unbanked. This group often lack access to the traditional forms of identification necessary to open an account with a registered financial institution.

As we get strive to meet our mission to be able to verify all of the world’s citizens, GMSA’s Mobile Connect also becomes increasingly important. Countries without access to credit bureau and government data can instead turn to mobile network operators (MNOs) for verification purposes. Even in countries where most citizens don’t have bank accounts, they do own mobile phones.

Through our marketplace, organisations are able to verify billions of people online so that everyone – regardless of race, location or financial situation – can talk, trade and transact in today’s digital economy. With real-time verifiable identities, a framework of trust and safety is established and organisations can deliver on the extraordinary promise of digital commerce in the years ahead.

This article first appeared on the GSMA Blog: Digital Identity: Crucial for the Success of Today’s Mobile-First World.