1.INTRODUCTION

According to the World Bank, of the 7.9 billion people worldwide, we have about 6 billion active mobile subscriptions today and 5 billion of those users belong to developing countries. While the internet made the world a global village, the easy access and affordability of mobile phones, rapid improvements in 3G and 4G cellular networks has revolutionized this space.

Help and reaching your loved ones is a phone call or a SMS text away, a video call can be made with family members who are miles away, a virtual party can be held with friends across the seas, a timely video chat with your doctor and necessary care is all possible only because of mobiles, cellular and internet technologies.

Among the technological innovations mentioned above that permeated into mainstream applications for the masses, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning made a leap in the last decade. The confluence of AI/ML and mobile technology created myriad of applications that especially helped us survive the changes that the pandemic world challenged us with.

Banking, Insurance and other Financial Service providers, Motor Vehicle rentals, Taxi Operators, Telecom providers all did identify proofing of their new users via mobile phones by using documents such as National IDs and Passports issued by the government. While organizations recognized the changing demography of their customers and had already embarked on a digitization drive, the pandemic propelled & accelerated remote & contact less mobile based identity onboarding and corroboration for customers in the last 20 months.

IDENTITY MANAGEMENT

As per Gartner, Identity proofing process must align three aspects of identity — the real-world identity, the digital identity and the person submitting the identity claim. Historically a person’s identity was established during an in-person face-to-face meeting, by the organization’s representative while gathering details such as name, date of birth and address, which was then matched against a valid government issued photo ID document. For returning customers static data verification served the function of identity proofing and when this proved inadequate, knowledge-based verification (KBV) got introduced. This usually was done over a phone call or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) while validating recent transaction history along with Personally Identifiable Information and secret questions. This method proved to be a problem and failed legitimate customers who didn’t readily have access to data records or failed to recall from memory, resulting in friction and abandonment. In the last decade cybercrimes and theft of breached data further weakened the KBV methods.

In-person identity proofing had limitations and reduced the available growth opportunity for banking, healthcare, telecom and other sectors. While the Internet is the primary technology that has set the stage for mobile based identity management, the availability of inexpensive smart phones and falling price of data has made it accessible to larger audience. The new age consumer is techno-savvy and thinks mobile first. Mobile phones have become an extension of an individual today and the convenience it offers has given organizations the impetus to invest in reaching out to the new generation customers to enroll and interact with them via mobile phones using mobile apps and browser-based applications. Customers however may end up prioritizing customer experience & friction less interaction over security, passing the onus of providing safe and secure interactions to service providers and technology providers. FinTech’s, Tech vendors and traditional businesses are enabling organizations to verify applicants or customers over remote digital channels whereby a National ID, Resident Permit or Passport is captured via a mobile phone camera and then assessed for authenticity, and then the photo on the Photo ID document is compared to a selfie taken by the individual submitting the documents. This is being done with the help of mobile apps with SDKs and APIs to AI/ML technologies for automated verification of KYC documents, Selfie based liveness & facial matching verification.

Despite the seemingly automated nature of document verification processes, it is a big leap for traditional businesses and regulatory bodies. So, they are employing a combination of algorithms and manual processes to de-risk the process. There are other factors related to data storage, securing that in the long run, offering the solution over cloud, on premise etc. that organizations are having to take care of and different business sectors are deciding different approaches based on their risk appetite and governing regulation

MOBILE IDENTITY MANAGEMENT USE CASES IN BANKS

Globally with the increasing Digitization drive mobile based identity proofing is being offered in multiple ways. It could be via mobile apps, SDKs, APIs and browser-based applications. The KYC identity documents can also be validated against government databases such as UIDAI and NSDL in India. Similar civil and national ID databases are available in other countries both in developed and emerging markets, making remote onboarding secure, fast and frictionless.

Central Banks such as the Reserve Bank of India have passed regulations allowing banks and other financial institutions to allow the use of the Internet and mobile technologies to allow customers to open and operate an account. Similar regulations have been passed across Europe, US, GCC and South-East Asian countries. In countries such as India, Germany, Singapore and Canada Video based KYC is being promoted where a bank’s official onboards the user as a customer over a mobile based video call. The underlying software platforms used for the identity proofing is augmented with ML models to ascertain validity of KYC documents and for auto extraction of the information keeping the interaction short. This serves to improve the user experience by reducing time taken to fill forms while also curbing fraud with non-editable auto filled forms

All Banks in India including Public sector, Private and Small Finance banks, since 2020 have allowed new customers to open a Video KYC Based Account where a banking official ascertains the all the possible identities of the individual, namely real world, digital and the person submitting the identity claim is the same before opening and activating the bank account on the same day which was un heard of in the past.

Pensioners recently were able to provide the required annually performed life certificate update from the comfort of their chairs and bed via a smart phone-based verification. This, they were able to do in a matter of minutes using a language of their choice while the bank ensured the necessary due diligence was done using a combination of selfie matching to photo on government ids collected along with Knowledge based verification over the Video KYC call.

Countries such as Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, UAE and US & Europe offer Self Onboarding for opening of bank accounts using smart phones. The technology ensures a life selfie is collected, with anti-spoof checks and matching of the selfie against multiple Photo IDs collected during the Onboarding journey. Apart from the above use cases mobile identity is used for returning customers for step up authorization & re-KYC using AI/ML technology. Technology providers are also providing behavioral analytics which allows service providers to assess their customer mobile usage pattern to flag any suspicious or malicious activity

CONCLUSION

Mobile Technology has come a long way since its invention in the 1980s and access to the common man. Today both the new and old generation operate mobile first and the Mobile based Identity Management is a natural approach for businesses to adopt as a channel for their consumers. The day is not far when 5G cellular technology will make Mobile Identity Management ubiquitous across all walks of life around the globe. The onus rests on Governments, Businesses and Technology providers to ensure mobile phones and supported technology solutions remain safe, secure, fair, convenient and frictionless for its end users.

REFERENCES

Gartner White paper “Market Guide for Identity Proofing and Corroboration” by Jonathan Care, Akif Khan, Published on 30 September 2019