Reusable identity is transforming customer reverification

Rob Sheehan, Head of Product

Imagine a company that sells identity verification telling you there is too much identity verification going on in the world? That would be a world gone mad, right?

The fact is though that one of the most common causes of friction in doing business today is identity verification. One study of UK consumers found that 32% have considered abandoning sign-up for a new account due to onerous identity and security checks, rising to 41% in the 18 to 24-year-olds. A fast, frictionless experience is essential.

The world economy went digital fast and the way we prove who we are has struggled to keep pace with demand for convenience, speed and security online. Documents offer identity security rooted in the past and can often be overused in the present. The good news is that the technology exists, here and now, to turn that ID into portable and reusable digital credentials.

Too much identity verification is a problem

When onboarding new customers to your business it’s important to verify identity and establish complete identity confidence at first contact. For regulated businesses, like banks, financial services and insurance companies, ID document checks and biometric identity verification are common to manage risk and KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance.

For existing customers, it’s good practice to reverify identity for large transactions or in response to unfamiliar account behaviour. For regulated industries, repeat identity checks are mandatory at key stages of the customer lifecycle to maintain due diligence.

Frequent requests to verify identity, however, can quickly take their toll when existing customers must resubmit identity documents or repeat biometric checks. Asking customers to pull out their ID and complete full checks multiple times for routine risk assessment seems crazy.

Too much identity verification can quickly create problems for everyone:

1. Frustrating loyal customers

Well-known high street banking brands have faced a backlash from long-standing customers who are suddenly required to undergo reverification using identity documents – even for accounts held for decades. Getting the balance of identity reverification and long-standing customer experience wrong can result in a big hit to a bank’s brand reputation and trust rating.

2. Creating barriers to cross-selling

Repetitive reverification is frustrating for customers but also costly for businesses. Repeat requests to complete full identity verification frustrate new business opportunities, deterring existing customers from exploring additional products or services – with no trust benefit to being a valued customer, reverification can be a barrier to increasing customer value.

3. Increasing operational costs

Duplicate identity checks also consume business resources and increase operational costs. Complete identity verification checks incur higher processing charges and can lead to more customer support and manual reviews. Multiple checks also complicate data privacy compliance, duplicating data records and increasing data fragmentation and redundancy.

“By enabling secure reusable identity verification linked to biometrics, ID-Pal is eliminating redundant verification steps, dramatically improving customer experience and reducing operational costs for business.”

Reusable identity: The digital identity solution

In competitive markets where customer experience is a key differentiator, verified, reusable identities remove the need to repeat complicated verification journeys, offering a faster, easier solution that’s fit for a digital economy.

A reusable identity is a secure and portable representation of an individual’s verified identity information that can be used across a business or network of businesses. A new customer completes onboarding with secure document authentication and biometric verification just once and is issued with a secure digital token or credential confirming her identity.

This verified, reusable identity can be retained within the business and used to reverify this individual at key touchpoints across the customer lifecycle, or quickly verify their identity on application to other products and services – without undergoing extended identity verification checks. Customer experience and value are enhanced, verification costs are reduced and all at zero cost to security or ongoing KYC and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) compliance.

How reusable identity benefits business and customer

In this way, reusable identities are transforming how businesses serve and retain customers, delivering tangible benefits to both business and customer. Let’s look at a few examples.

1.Enhanced customer experience

Leading banks and financial services are increasingly deploying verified, reusable identity to facilitate easier access for existing customers when opening new accounts or applying for personal loans, credit cards or investment products – without repeating full identity checks.

Once verified, customers can

• reverify their identity 5X faster than before
• reduce sign-up barriers to new services
• quickly authenticate identity for extra security when needed

2. Increased customer value

Telecommunications businesses are benefiting from customers upgrading devices or adding family plans faster and more easily. In the USA, patients of healthcare services can reuse their identity credentials to access related services within the same provider network.

Once verified, customers can

• achieve up to 80% time saving on reverification
• upgrade existing accounts or access other services seamlessly
• bypass barriers to new services

3. Reduced operational costs

As governments around the world are increasingly introducing national digital ID systems, the practice of reusable identity to connect to public services is accelerating access to tax filing, national pension records and voter registration.

Once a citizen is verified, service providers can

• reduce third-party identity verification service costs
• reduce paperwork and manual document reviews
• reduce customer verification support escalations

4. Enhanced data integrity and compliance

All businesses switching to reusable identity profiles on a single CRM platform find it easier to comply with changing data protection laws by avoiding the data fragmentation and redundancy commonly caused by multiple identity checks.

Once a customer is verified, business can

• efficiently and compliantly manage customer data
• reduce identity data duplication and fragmentation
• request full checks only when required by regulation or on ID expiry

“In competitive markets where customer experience is a key differentiator, verified, reusable identities offer a faster, easier solution that’s fit for a digital economy.”

Balancing reusable identity with compliance

A successful reusable identity framework blends convenience with robust regulatory compliance. Forward-looking businesses are achieving this through smart identity security design and governance.

AML regulations require that full identity reverification, including resubmission of identity documents, must take place periodically. Your business should be prepared to complete full checks when the risk profile of a customer changes, when the value of a transaction requires a step-up in identity authentication, or when your customer’s ID expires.

Data protection laws require that your business can demonstrate customer authorisation for identity data sharing, what data can be shared and with whom. So, any business planning to reverify reusable identity data must track consent and offer customers continuing control. As verified, reusable identity offers customers a faster, frictionless experience, ID-Pal Once is ready to ensure your business benefits — securely, compliantly, and successfully.

ID-Pal Once: Identity reverification in three simple steps

By enabling secure reusable identity verification linked to biometrics, ID-Pal is eliminating redundant verification steps, dramatically improving customer experience and reducing operational costs for business.

So, how does it work?

To ensure customer due diligence and minimise fraud risk at initial onboarding, ID-Pal delivers strong identity verification with complete ID authentication, biometric verification and liveness detection to establish a trusted identity baseline at the top of your customer lifecycle. Once passed, this creates a verified, reusable ID-Pal Once profile linked to your CRM platform and protected by cryptographic data security to ensure these unique identity credentials are tied to your genuine customer, preventing impersonation or misuse.

1. Identity reverification request

When your customer wants to open a new account or complete a high-value transaction, identity reverification can be triggered with an ID-Pal API call or a link. This securely retrieves the reusable ID profile containing your customer’s ID and biometric data.

2. Liveness detection test

If the original ID is still valid, your customer simply submits a new selfie on the ID-Pal app. This security test takes just three seconds to ensure that your customer is genuinely present at the time of her identity reverification.

3. Real-time customer matching

ID-Pal automatically validates the liveness test in real time, matching your customer’s new selfie to the biometric faceprint stored in her reusable ID profile – completing reverification five times faster than a full identity verification journey.

The future is reusable identity verification

Verified, reusable identity represents the next logical digital identity evolution, offering enhanced customer experience, increased customer value and reduced operational costs. By reverifying existing customers with a real-time match to a strong, biometrically verified ID profile your business can serve customers faster and better.

Reusable identity profiles are an in important step forward to a future of portable digital credentials that will only continue, offering greater convenience, speed and security online. With ID-Pal Once, we’re ready to help your business take that that step forward, and if that means a little less identity verification going on in the world, well, that’s ok with us.

Learn more about ID-Pal Once, ID-Pal’s secure, reusable digital identity solution.