The acceleration of digital transformation has been fast-tracked over recent years. Businesses have had to deal with the global impact of Covid and, more recently, have looked at ways of combatting shrinking margins; increased risk as well as the demand for immediacy from an ‘always on’ society.
Due to the speed in which Covid-19 developed, there was a need to adapt quickly. Consumers increasingly changed their behaviour and adopted on-line tools at a greater speed. Businesses had to pivot and adapt their strategies to meet customer demands and must now manage the more recent staffing crisis, both in skillset and availability.
Remote verification for digital onboarding has been part of this transformation. Whilst it has been on the agenda for some time, those businesses that have resisted for so long are feeling the pain of slow adoption now. A 2020 report by McKinsey Digital shows a jump of 11% for the digital adoption rate during the pandemic within the UK, a figure that is not expected to see any decline in the future.
Remote Verification is the Way Forward for Seamless Onboarding
Enabling remote verification of identity and account information for easier KYC/KYB onboarding, with a full and compliant audit trail, is a must for businesses that want to succeed. With the process taking minutes, as well as removing the hurdle of customers having to visit an office or branch to complete forms and provide evidence for copying and manually storing, it has become a ‘no-brainer’ expectation of all – not just the technologically proficient generation.
By using remote verification tools, such as Remote Verify from NorthRow, businesses can onboard their customers in a secure and swift way, from anywhere, at any time. Using a single API platform, which can be deployed in a matter of days (or even hours in some circumstances), with minimal project management, users access a single weblink and scan their ID which is checked and verified. This automatic verification uses powerful data sets and has been shown to be more accurate at detecting fraudulent documents than traditional manual review.
An Almost Overnight Evolution of Remote Verification
Technology and improved digital infrastructure continue to advance, regardless of sector, but some have adapted and moved to digital onboarding quicker than others. Some would say the slow adoption has been due to the absence of a regulatory body requiring that client onboarding needs to be done this way. Others may be concerned about business interruption or cost. However – 2020 drove rapid change to create a new norm.
This new norm is driven by 3 key areas:
Customer Demand
An example of customer demand is evidenced in the growth of the number of challenger banks. The digitisation of customer identification and verification is prioritised in order to achieve competitive advantage rather than seen as just an overhead cost.
Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory compliance will continue to be a focus area and the need to comply with existing and emergent regulatory and industry initiatives continue. Businesses will need to be efficient and build their processes to minimise costs when developing solutions for onboarding, remediation and monitoring.
Cost Rationalisation
Given recent trends, and the current economic situation, cost reduction and rationalisation are an important focus. The adoption of automation will be key; digital onboarding and verification will support a smaller and focussed team that can implement the initial process and then focus on monitoring and remediation of exceptions or incidents that require expertise.
Digital Identity Verification is Critical to Customer Experience
When opening an account or signing up to a service, customers expect a fast, secure onboarding experience. Identity verification plays a crucial role in this. Not only ensuring the person opening an account is who they say they are, but, equally as important, it is crucial to providing an excellent customer experience, especially as firms transition to a digital-first approach.
Users expect some level of security verification and due diligence, when they are being onboarded, especially if they are dealing with financial products and services. They are prepared for some friction when handing over personal details, however they want an effortless process that requires them to only add their details once, using their own device, anywhere, and at any time. And they certainly do not want the process to take days
Genuine Presence for Remote Verification
The solution is to use an automated API-driven solution that can verify client data against multiple data sets, in real-time such as NorthRow’s Remote Verify.
By adding Genuine Presence Assurance to our RemoteVerify platform, NorthRow further enhances the user experience and enables regulated businesses to be confident that each individual is the right person, a real person and that they are genuinely present right now. As online criminal activity and large-scale spoof attacks threaten organisations such as accountants, estate agents, and solicitors, they will need this confidence more than ever.
Continue to do Business and Keep Revenue Flowing
Adopting remote verification allows businesses to focus on keeping the customer experience at the highest quality, whilst being confident of remaining compliant and reducing resource costs exponentially. Where once, companies saw an ever-increasing mountain of compliance and HR outlay ahead of them, they now see a trusted and economic solution to their plans for reduced expenditure against increased expansion into whatever regulated market they are in.
Businesses who have already adopted this plug and play technology are seeing onboarding times reduce dramatically, often from weeks down to minutes, freeing up time to focus on delivering a great service, win more business and ultimately gain competitive advantage over those who continue with manual processes.
