Identity verification in Australia

Numerous technological advancements, such as intelligent document readers, facial biometrics, and machine learning are available to ensure businesses meet compliance requirements and give customers a secure and speedy onboarding experience.

For both businesses and customers, identity checking via identity verification software is an essential part of conducting business online. In Australia, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic saw more than half of small businesses accelerate their operations online. This trend extended to large enterprises, who needed to overhaul their digital experience to remain competitive.

Remaining compliant as a business while also delighting customers is the pièce de résistance of digital identity verification — and it can be achieved with GBG.

Requirements of identity verification in Australia

Any registered Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) financial institution, such as banks, insurance companies, or lending agencies, is required by law to verify a customer’s identity prior to providing access to products and services. This ensures those who apply for products and services are who they say they are. Customer due diligence (CDD) protects the general public from identity fraud and identity theft, and restricts the ability of criminals to open accounts.

One of the main reasons verification of identity is so important is to establish that the customer on the other end of a transaction is exactly who they say they are. By using the correct identity verification software, businesses can comply with Anti-Money Laundering standards and Counter-Terrorism Financing.

Why is identity verification important?

With more and more physical bank branches closing in Australia, identity verification via electronic verification is a growing necessity for businesses. Some 459 bank and credit union branches in Australia and 84 branches in New Zealand have been shut down in the last few years.

Without a branch network, digital identity verification becomes a viable alternative to the traditional face-to-face identification process from years gone by. Previously, the process of verifying identities involved the provision of physical documents and signatures, as well as using the human eye to compare identification photos. This was time consuming and prone to human error. In this context, it’s clear to see the importance of good identity verification software in improving the overall customer experience.

This is because conducting identity verification checks — or ID verification, as it is sometimes known — is essential to offering customers a fast and secure way to apply for financial services. It streamlines the application process and allows for greater efficiencies and accuracy in the identity checking process.

Customer expectations have also risen in line with the increasing digitisation of identity verification processes. Recent research from IDC, commissioned by GBG, found Australian consumers want to use biometric technology and have high expectations of its capabilities, recognising it as the fastest identity verification methodology. Younger Australians are more open to these digitised types of identity verification — 18-44 year olds were three times more likely to have used facial biometric and document validation than 45+ year olds.

You can read more about Australian consumers’ experiences with identity verification software here.

The benefits of choosing greenID, a GBG solution

greenID, a GBG solution, is an end-to-end digital identity verification solution. Trusted by organisations that conduct millions of verifications each year, greenID enables the verification and onboarding of new customers reliably and efficiently.

greenID provides

• simple biometrics set up: for customers of greenID, the addition of biometric and document verification only needs simple code changes or Software Development Kit (SDK) integration, which can be done at speed
• full onboarding automation: for organisations choosing automated document and facial verification in the onboarding process via facial biometrics, greenID provides a single interface and single vendor. This means document, facial and identity verification happens in a complete, end-to-end suite. It is also set up to verify international passports and visas to serve immigrants and expats more easily
• onboard legitimate customers: greenID is constantly adding new and independent data sources, which can verify diverse cohorts and higher volumes of customers with greater accuracy
• higher pass rates with autocomplete: sometimes, erroneously, a good customer doesn’t complete onboarding due to inputting the wrong information into the wrong fields. Functions such as address lookup and autocomplete in greenID means this information is automatically populated and cross-referenced, reducing the margin of error for accidents
• fraud prevention: with the use of biometrics comes the risk of fraudulent activities such as the use of deep fakes, synthetic IDs, or image doctoring. greenID has award-winning digital tamper detection technology and an online forensic document examiner service to prevent these frauds at the outset
• full regulatory compliance: most industries are governed by regulation to be able to onboard new customers. greenID provides extensive data sources to meet compliance and can be customized to different risk appetite of various organization, needs by industry-specific regulatory requirements, customised hotlists and use cases. 

To find out more about greenID and GBG’s end-to-end digital identity verification services, visit https://gbg-greenid.com/