By James O’Toole, Chief Business Officer, and Rob Sheehan, Head of Product
Identity verification has become a routine part of digital onboarding, yet for many customers it remains a repeated source of friction.
Whether applying for financial products, interacting with a payments provider or accessing iGaming (to list only a few of the widespread use cases), people are still expected to re-submit the same identity documents repeatedly. Each repetition adds delay, creates frustration and increases abandonment, and for businesses that translates in to lost conversions and rising operational effort. The opportunity is clear: the future of digital identity must prioritise reusability.
Cut complexity and cost
This is the problem ID-Pal Once was designed to solve. And as quoted from James O’Toole, ID-Pal’s Chief Business Officer:
“The concept is being able to reuse a verified identity credential. More and more clients were asking how they could stop putting their customers through the same process multiple times.”
And this is the driver for creating a more efficient KYC process. In sectors such as fund administration, a single investor may interact with multiple entities or multiple products yet still be asked to repeat the full identity journey. The same challenge appears in payments, where periodic reverification is required. The outcome is a poor user experience with redundant KYC steps. Made worse because this experience is being forced upon legitimate, existing customers.
ID-Pal Once streamlines this. The initial verification remains thorough: a document check, biometric match and liveness detection. But once verified, the individual can be authenticated in seconds using only a selfie. No documents. No repetition.
“You verify once, and then the next time, all you need to do is complete a selfie that takes a couple of seconds. It dramatically reduces friction without compromising security.” – Rob Sheehan, Head of Product.
This unlocks a range of UX-led use cases. For multi-entity journeys, a customer does not need to repeat onboarding steps they have already completed. For periodic reverification, the experience becomes a moment, not a process. And for step-up authentication such as unusual transactions or high-value actions it offers a biometric alternative to outdated and often vulnerable SMS-based authentication. The customer experience is faster, more intuitive and more secure.
Security and privacy remain foundational. ID-Pal continues to act as a processor, not a controller, giving individuals control over how their identity is reused. Consent is explicit, and biometric binding ensures that the identity can only be reused by the rightful owner. Background validity checks such as confirming the original document is still in date protect the integrity of reverification. This balance of control, convenience and compliance is essential as fraud grows in sophistication.
What comes next is even more transformative. Today, ID-Pal Once enables reuse between an individual and a single business. Tomorrow, it becomes the building block of a wider, consent-driven network. Over time, individuals will be able to selectively share only the data points a business needs; for example, confirming age without sharing a full document.
“A positive step towards a future where people have full control over their digital identity and what information they share.”
The direction of travel is unmistakable. Just as payments evolved from typing card numbers to tapping a phone, identity will move from repeated document checks to effortless verification triggered only when needed. Reusable digital identity is not only a technical improvement; it is a user-experience breakthrough. ID-Pal Once represents the start of that shift towards faster interactions, greater trust and a future where digital identity simply works, wherever and whenever it is needed.
To learn more about streamlining and enhancing your onboarding experience with up to 5X faster, secure and cost-efficient verification for returning users, visit ID-Pal Once.
