Video KYC: Lockdown and beyond – it’s becoming a new norm

With almost everyone – except the persons associated with essential services – confined to their homes during the Covid-19 lockdown nationwide, video-based Know Your Customer (KYC) process is helping people avail financial services.

“With the movement restricted, for both bank employees and customers, the go-ahead for and availability of a Video KYC option has come as a blessing. It has ensured the safety of customers and bank officials alike, allowing them to complete the critical KYC process from the security of their own spaces,” said Omkar Shirhatti, Co-Founder & CEO, Karza Technologies, where the Video KYC solutions offered have been augmented by straight through onboarding.

However, the ease of acquiring new customers through Video KYC makes it a new norm even after the lockdown is over.

“Even in the absence of restricted movement, Video KYC affords potential customers the luxury of onboarding from the comforts of their residences. For customers living in remote areas, we foresee Video KYC as a game changer in enabling complete financial inclusion for them,” said Shirhatti.

In fact, a private sector bank has already started offering Video KYC Account, where individuals may open a zero-contact full KYC bank account right from their homes.

According to the emails sent by the bank, the requirements to open Video KYC Accounts are Aadhaar Number, PAN Card, blank paper, a black pen, uninterrupted internet connection, a clear background and proper lighting to have a clear view of an applicant’s face.

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“From the perspective of businesses, since Video KYC helps in automated and immediate onboarding, they have the opportunity to increase their customer conversion rate & customer satisfaction. Additionally, it reduces documentation and resource requirements, which eventually helps in bringing down operational costs,” said Shirhatti.

According to the private sector bank providing Video KYC Account, an applicant first have to add his/her name, mobile number and email ID to receive an One Time Password (OTP). Along with the OTP, the applicant has to enter PAN and Aadhaar details followed by personal details.

To begin the video call for the KYC purpose, the applicant needs to allow the bank to access location details of his/her phone.

According to Shirhatti, the Karza straight through onboarding involves optical character recognition (OCR) and real-time KYC authentication APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), passive liveness detection and automated matching of names, addresses and faces.

“Our solutions are additionally capable in analysing authenticity through facial recognition, geo-tagging, timestamps, and liveness checks, which ascertains location, face match, and other fraud checks,” said Shirhatti.