Author: Radhika Shah

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Video KYC -The ‘New Normal’ across Industries

With social distancing becoming the new normal and businesses going completely online, Digital KYC is now at the forefront to onboard customers instantly, while keeping a check on their records and doing what’s best for business.

Having adopted the best video KYC tools available for their business, both financial as well as non-financial companies find it a boon that lets their business move swiftly. With features like OCR, Facematch, geo-tagging, fraud detection, functioning Video KYC at low bandwidth, Video recording and more, businesses are quickly moving to digital KYC. Here’s a look at how this much-needed tool works, or will work across various sectors.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance

Banks: For every customer who opens an account with a bank, whether demat, current, savings, or any other, RBI mandates a digital KYC for onboarding the customer. Using Video KYC verification helps banks keep a record of each and every customer via their Aadhaar Card, and link it to the corresponding bank account to track transactions. In order to update customer details regularly, banks also use Video KYC for Re-KYC which makes the entire process much simpler and quicker. 

Asset Management Companies: For all Asset Management Companies regulated by the SEBI, Video based KYC identification offers full KYC to minimise the risk of money laundering. The authentication process is swift, precise, and paperless, leading to a reduction in costs as well as onboarding time. AMCs have now started using Video KYC not only for individuals but while onboarding SMEs and other larger enterprises too.

Insurance: Video KYC’s Liveliness Detection, Facematch and personal discussion features, like the ones offered by Kwik.ID are salient for insurance companies where fraud is more likely. These features enhance the experience for clients and reduce digital risk for companies.

Lending: SMEs and Fintechs choose to use Video KYC verification for lending processes to make quick and informed decisions, while also making the lending process faster and smoother for the borrower. Many NBFCs use digital KYC for individual lending too.

Wallets: Online wallets are quickly becoming the top video KYC users. All this while, customers were asked to adopt the traditional means of submitting their Aadhaar manually at a centre. But with Video KYC in the picture, e-wallet onboarding can be done in less than 3 minutes from the comfort of your home.

Non-Financial institutions

Employee Onboarding: For large organisations, especially those with over a 100 employees, choosing the best Video KYC tool is the smartest way to store employee data, so as to transfer salaries and EPF and safeguard the interests of the company incase of any fraud.

Online Alcohol Delivery: With online alcohol delivery becoming the ‘new normal’, sellers have to be extremely cautious that the alcohol isn’t reaching the wrong hands. Here’s where Digital KYC comes into play. Right from age-restriction checks, geo-fencing, and address verification, KYC – platforms like KwikI.D are designed for Regulated Entities, thereby adapting themselves to simpler customer onboarding.

Telecom industry: Something that we’ve all witnessed is getting authenticated via KYC while being issued a new SIM card. With the shift in selling SIM cards online, network providers are gradually moving towards Video KYC for contactless and quick verification.

Rental/shared vehicle economy: While customers have to opt for Video KYC verification to add money to their wallets, transport apps have to go through it too, to register themselves and keep their accounts operational.

Co-working spaces: As entrepreneurs and businessmen have begun investing heavily in co-working spaces, their safety becomes a matter of concern for the property owner. The easiest way to keep a record of all the employees is via a video based KYC identification.

Educational platforms & exams:  While this seems to be in the making, with the pandemic, it won’t be long before schools and colleges use Digital KYC to enrol students, especially for competitive exams where cheating is rampant.

Gaming: Gaming is one of the largest sectors that witness cybersecurity and fraud because there’s plenty of money involved that can be easily tampered with. Luckily, because of Video KYC’s AI integrated Facematch Liveliness and fraud detection tools, like the ones we offer, make it easier to detect and shut down these fraudsters.

At Kwik.ID, we understand the importance of security and the need to constantly evolve, especially while doing business online. As leading video KYC solution providers, we aspire to facilitate easy digital KYC across every sector, big or small.

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Call Queues and Scheduling Made Easy With Kwik.ID

At Kwik.ID, we understand the importance of good customer service, so apart from striving to be the best Video KYC solution providers in the industry, we also strive to make the Digital KYC tools smooth and quick-paced. From handheld processes, AI-powered Facematch and Liveliness, to Video KYC at low bandwidth, we offer it all. Among the array of features are our call queue and scheduling feature, which promises 100% efficiency and customer satisfaction.

To onboard Digital KYC customers seamlessly, it is imperative to monitor these call queues consistently and lower the average call queue time to as low as 1 minute. This results in new sales opportunities, goodwill, and encourages brand awareness.

Here’s why queue call management matters if you want to achieve an above 85% completion rate from your video KYC verification:

Low Call Abandonment Rates: The longer your potential customer is kept waiting, the higher the chances of him dropping off from your business entirely and choosing a competitor. Moreover, by reducing call abandonment rates, your business can handle a higher volume of calls.

2. High First-Call Rates: Attending to a customer on the first call indicates that your business is a good service provider.

3. Minimised Costs: When you schedule a digital KYC session call with a potential customer, you reduce the hold time to free up the toll-free lines and receive more calls.

Sometimes, these rates tend to be low and costs aren’t minimised enough, leading to your Video KYC verification tool not working effectively enough. This can happen because of the following reasons:

1. Outdated Technology: One of our top priorities at Kwik.ID is to make our Video KYC tools compatible with every Android and iOS device, while offering Video KYC at low bandwidth. While outdated technology is definitely something that can lead to call drops even after queueing and scheduling, we promise a smooth process by offering comprehensive customer information before agents answer the call.

2. Under-staffing: Inspite of offering a host of features, even the best video KYC tool is nothing without enough agents who’ll handle the calls. Your calls might keep piling up and there’d be nobody around to respond to them.

3. Long Handling Times: A call attended to might take longer than expected because the agent isn’t cooperating with the caller or interrupting the caller.

With Kwik.ID’s video KYC verification, rest assured these problems won’t come into play with our carefully segmented call queues and scheduling, to maximise your success rate to over 85%. Our process begins by segregating the queues into two – standard queue and priority queue. Every potential customer is first put into the standard queue by default before they are assigned an agent. Based on the age, if the customer is a senior citizen, and/or based on location if a customer belongs to a rural area, he is placed in the priority queue. Also, in case a customer’s call is disconnected by an agent once or an agent is unable to respond to the customer’s request within the threshold wait time, he is placed in the priority queue. This queue exists to ensure that the applicant is served at priority and does not have to wait with another applicant again. Further, it eases the process for customers and helps them at each step, if they aren’t technologically equipped or are functioning on low bandwidth mode. The priority queue is checked before checking the standard queue. After assigning all the priority customers to agents, we then proceed to the standard queue.

For the best digital KYC call queueing and scheduling practices, we suggest the following:

1. Call Management: Keep call wait time shorter than 2 minutes to avoid call drops.

2. Queue Management: Monitor LIVE data from our dashboard

3. Funnel Management: Study what stage of the call customers are dropping off at, so you can identify the problem and rectify it instantly

4. Agent Management: Track your agents’ data carefully so you can solve any issues with their performance

Kwik.ID’s queueing and scheduling of call functionality, coupled with live dashboards for admin monitoring, makes Kwik.ID one of the best Video KYC tool for your business.

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All about AI based Facematch & Liveliness Detection

As technology seems to be taking over the world, businesses rely heavily on Artificial Intelligence (AI), for almost every aspect of work. AI has seeped not only into your personal life, but also your professional life – from handling everyday tasks, aiding critical problem solving, onboarding customers seamlessly, and improving the overall customer experience.

With Kwik.ID’s Video KYC verification, onboarding customers is certainly made easy, but what makes it trustworthy are the Facematch and Liveliness tools that detect frauds, and prevent impersonation or identity theft of any sort. With the recent advances in AI and deep learning technology, face recognition accuracy has significantly increased.

Facematch and Liveliness are probably the most essential security features which ensure that the user is authentic and there is no foul play involved. High-speed and extremely accurate face recognition technology is based on convolutional neural networks of the latest architecture and most progressive methods of training. The algorithm is based on the neural network and a machine learning approach, unlike “traditional” algorithms based on mathematical model. While active 3D techniques detect movements like eye-blinking and facial movements, passive 3D uses internal algorithms to detect frauds, together making spoofing difficult for the user.

Facematch and Liveliness tools have been pathbreaking innovations in recent times, that facilitate easy and hassle-free business no matter where you or your customers are.

It is no surprise then that so many industries and sectors choose a Video KYC process over a traditional KYC, to ensure that their onboarding process is 100% secure and smooth.

Apart from just adopting Video KYC, here are some industries/sectors that have begun transforming with these tools:

  • Banking: For the banking sector, customer security and fraud prevention is of utmost importance. Facial recognition allows users to log in securely from the mobile banking apps.
  • Finance and Fintech: Financial institutions opt for facial recognition and liveliness tools for instant loans or users making regular payments.
  • Hospitality: Facial recognition is a preferred choice for verifying and authorising guests, especially at check-in.
  • Marketing: The Facematch algorithm helps you analyse your customers’ gender and age and allows you to evaluate your marketing strategy.
  • Trading platforms and exchanges: Facematch and liveness tools can be integrated into the platforms for distant account registration and verification of the account owner.

Other similar fields that choose Kwik.ID’s video KYC for its automated AI tools include insurance companies, brokerages, e-wallets, and NBFCs too.

At Kwik.ID, your data security and privacy have always been our top priority, therefore adopting these AI-powered tools for our instant Video KYC process was a pre-requisite.

The biggest benefit to you is making sure you aren’t being spoofed by a potential customer. But there are so many more benefits too:

  • Aids organisations in speedy KYC / authentication process
  • Authentication methods are efficient and highly accurate
  • Saves time and resources
  • Convenient and cost-effective
  • Determines real user presence during any type of financial transactions
  • Prevents duplicate ids and multiple account registrations for the same user

All of these features make Kwik.ID’s Video KYC a promising tool, which when integrated with your business platform, seamlessly differentiates between actual customers and fake ones. Also with Kwik.ID you will be able to enjoy Video KYC at low bandwith.

So far, after conducting over 50,000+ sessions, and achieving a success rate of over 85% on Video KYC sessions, our biggest learning has been that AI-powered tools have been a major success factor to build trust among KwikID’s clientele, helping us help you.

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Our Learnings from Completing 50,000 Video KYC Sessions

When we started Kwik.ID, it was with the simple idea of offering a ‘Kwik’ solution to organizations across every financial sector, who want to expedite their KYC processes and onboard customers almost instantly. Today, we have to our credit over 50,000 video KYC sessions and a loyal clientele who encourage us to push the envelope.

Having worked with almost every finance-based segment out there, including Banks, NBFCs, Insurance organizations, FinTechs, and even Gaming and Forex, among others, our journey along with 50,000+ Video KYC verification sessions has taught us plenty.

On average we conduct 1500 sessions a day and can handle 15 parallel sessions at any given point of time. All these sessions across markets gave us an insight into how each customer is unique in terms of requirement. How then does a single product benefit them all?

We learnt that one of the key factors that organizations feared with online KYC, was frauds and identity theft. Our immediate response was to include a Fraud Check that verifies customer identity with AI-powered Facematch. Our Liveliness engine protects against fraudsters by ensuring they are physically present and do not use digital photos/printed photos at any time during the process. Features like central database verification of OVDs, fuzzy text matching between details on all OVDs, and document tampering risk score are some of the additional measures that we incorporated to protect organizations’ interest.

Another problem we witnessed were the rejections due to lack of awareness among customers and the drop-offs owing to internet connectivity. While the former has seen immense growth, with more organizations moving towards a quicker video KYC approach for their business, the latter was a matter of concern because we didn’t want to disappoint keen customers. We configured our solution to work on low bandwidth mode and support lower android versions too, (currently supporting 4.4+ which is compatible with 97% of handsets in India), to ensure that customers and agents (authorized personnel from an organization) both enjoy a seamless journey, no matter where they access our Kwik.ID solution from.

Apart from all of this, we aspire to cater to our clientele with an easy 4-step process and scheduling of calls for a suitable time, so customers can attend the video KYC session as per their convenience and your business can #KeepMoving too. Win-win for all!

One of the greatest learnings came in January 2020, when we went live with one of the largest FinTech organizations in India with our 100% API driven solution which supports IOS, Android and Web. It has reduced the organization’s KYC timeframe drastically with a session lasting an average of 1.5 minutes, instead of the traditional week-long KYC process. Tests were carried out across tier 1, 2, and 3 cities, and we found that there have been zero bugs since we went live. 

Other features like providing software updates for free, eliminating the need for additional applications, being 100% RBI Complaint, and providing daily, weekly and monthly statistics for monitoring growth, are add-ons that other organizations enjoy and trust us with. All of these add up to our excellence in Video based KYC identification.

As they say, success is a 2-way street. While organizations rely on us, we rely on them to help us better our product. So that we can design a finely-honed solution that effectively delivers on all the stringent KYC norms, and promises you the ease of doing business, wherever, whenever.

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Minimizing fraud with Video KYC

Financial institutions are mandated by law to carry out KYC to meet strict regulatory guidelines. It not only allows them to understand who their customer is but also functions as a pre-emptive safeguard against any potential illegal transactions.

While carrying out stringent KYC is quite a meticulous process, it is being remedied through the use of Adaptive AI. Wherein technology implements the necessary KYC processes and also incorporates learnings gained by observing the behavior of customers to differentiate between legitimate behavior patterns and suspicious ones.

By automating the KYC process, Video KYC securely verifies identities whilst detecting frauds and spoofing attempts on a real-time basis. This is done via the assimilation of a clear fraud decision-making framework coupled with robust data gathering and analysis. The different types of fraud checks during Video KYC verification are as follows:

Document Tampering: Kwik.ID’s AI based technology enables a quick face match between the selfie & photo on the identity document of the customer to check if the person submitting the documents matches the picture in them to avoid identity theft. Through its access to the central database, it also quickly verifies the legitimacy of the documents.

Further, an inbuilt feature in the video KYC solution checks if the official government ID provided has been tampered with. A risk score is generated to determine the legitimacy of the document. This ensures that the documents provided are the originals and not just a color photocopy.

Location Spoofing: Kwik.ID delivers very robust location intelligence to identify safe customers. At the beginning of Video based KYC identification, the live location (lat/long) of the customer through web browser/mobile is captured and in subsequent steps instant OCR of the POA document is done. Both the locations are fed into the distance algorithm and the address of POA is converted to lat/long. The distance between both location is calculated & if distance < 300 meters (configurable) then the current location gets tagged as HOME LOCATION.

Security Questions: A security question that needs to be answered by the customer undergoing the video KYC is included in this process to ensure that it is a live video session and not a pre-recorded one made by hackers.

All these features are integrated into Kwik.ID’s Video KYC solution to make it a comprehensive AI and data-driven decision-making platform.  This will serve as a valuable tool for FIs and other organizations to easily and seamlessly validate actual KYCs from fraudulent ones on a real-time basis.

To know more, reach out to us on info@getkwikid.com

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Physical KYC v/s Video KYC – Advantages & Limitations

KYC is essential to verify that the customers are who they claim to be and enables institutes to understand their customers better. This is vital for companies operating in the banking and financial sector that need to adhere to strict KYC and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) norms prescribed by regulatory authorities.

FIs also have to assure their customers that the sensitive personal data they are required to share to complete such procedures are in safe hands. While FIs need to ensure that the people signing up for their services are legitimate and not blacklisted or liable to commit illegal transactions, their clients need to know that their identity documents will not be misused.

Physical KYC requires customers to visit the company’s branch office to submit their identity documents and proof of address. While this is a very secure form of KYC, it is also very time consuming and inconvenient, especially for customers residing in towns where the company does not have a branch office.

Thus, a physical face-to-face KYC is not always a feasible option in a large country like India. So, companies need other alternatives to tap the vast market that exists in tier II and tier III cities and their suburbs.

Video KYC verification (approved method of KYC as per recent regulations) has emerged as a strong contender in recent times to resolve a myriad of KYC operational issues. It is a cost-effective and speedy way for organizations to ensure better customer experience while maintaining requisite process-adherence.

Unlike Digital KYC that still required a visit to the customer’s doorstep or nearest access point, video KYC makes the entire process digital. It not only provides companies remote access to potential customers but has also made the entire process paperless as there is no need for a wet signature. The videos and recordings taken during the KYC are encrypted to ensure data security.

Here are the overall advantages of Video KYC over Physical KYC:

Physical KYC Video KYC
INR 150+ per application INR 20-50 per application
8-10 applications per agent
per day 		100+ application per agent per day
Asynchronous identity check Real time identity verification
Delayed audit; error prone Concurrent audit
Outsourced vendor; data risk On premise; secure – RBI compliant
High training & operational cost Negligible; on-job prompts
Susceptible to customer, DSA, employee fraud Extremely potent against fraud

As a fast, regulatory compliant and secure KYC process, video KYC leaves everyone feeling a winner. The additional value generated through cost reduction makes it a must-have in the KYC paraphernalia. However, the only limiting factor of Video KYC is the heavy dependency on network bandwidth. But with the penetration of mobile handsets into every household, coupled with a minimum 4G data offered by telecom operators, this issue can be tackled smoothly.

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Exploring Aadhar XML verification journey with Kwik.ID

There clearly exists a need to move closer to a completely online customer onboarding process, as we’ve established earlier. However, as we move deeper into a digital age, data protection and privacy become central issues for any institution to take into account.

Kwik.ID is one such smart solution for customer onboarding and Digital KYC, which has an inbuilt option for Aadhar verification while limiting the sharing of users’ personal data. It allows users to voluntarily use it and complete the onboarding procedure without disclosing information such as Aadhaar number or sharing their biometrics with the REs.

How does it work?

The Aadhaar offline verification route is a fairly simple process which requires an individual to ping the UIDAI website download the XML and share the XML ZIP file along with the Share Code to the financial institution. The information generated will include the name, address, photo, gender, date of birth, registered phone number (as a comparable hash for protecting the user’s privacy), and registered e-mail address (as a comparable hash for protecting the user’s privacy). This information is obtained from UIDAI through the approved Aadhaar Offline Paperless XML process.

All the information obtained through the Offline Paperless XML process is stamped with UIDAI’s digital signature computed uniquely for each person, we check this digital signature every time upon decrypting the ZIP file to ensure that it wasn’t tampered with.

To avail this feature, it is imperative that the customers’ mobile number be linked to their Aadhar card. With that in place all a customer needs to do is to perform the following 3 steps to generate the XML:

  • Key in the Aadhaar number
  • Enter the captcha code and share code
  • Enter OTP received on registered mobile

The Aadhar XML route is a secure and user-friendly way for instantaneous online KYC verification. It will not only enable seamless onboarding of customers but also eliminates data breaches by limiting the data that needs to be shared.

The Kwik.ID Aadhaar Verification module powered by the approved Offline Paperless XML process is available as an independent module ready to be integrated in your digital journeys. Furthermore, it is also available pre-embedded in our Video KYC offering, wherein the XML generation, retrieval and verification process takes place live in the active Video KYC session entirely on the customer’s device ensuring the same compliance and security standards. In addition, it is important to note that we use best Video KYC tools to ease your KYC verification.

To know more about Kwik.ID’s Aadhaar Verification module, please write to info@getkwikid.com.

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Alcohol e-commerce seems simple. But is it?

Why ID Verification is Key for Alcohol E-Sellers

The Indian government’s decision to permit the sale of liquor has come as a sweet relief to alcohol aficionados across the country, especially considering we are merely emerging from the shutting down of all liquor establishments which had led to an extra dry summer.

The liquor industry is hit hard this year; every year, March to June is the peak season for liquor sales, generating 40% of the year’s revenue [1] for the retailer, as well as the State. State excise duties on liquor is the second or third largest contributor of approximately 10-15% to the State’s Own Tax revenue[1]. As soon as the central government allowed the sale of liquor during the lockdown, the long queues outside each store, the stories of “very large” transactions, and a subsequent flouting of all social distancing norms bore testimony to the customer demand for liquor (as an essential item), along with the inherent risks associated with liquor sales. States were quick to roll back the permissions, while they figure out alternate mechanisms. Allowing home delivery of liquor – whether through online sales or through direct sale by liquor shops has emerged as a viable idea. Chhattisgarh and Punjab have already gone ahead and allowed specific partners to enable liquor sale online[2].

Selling liquor online is the perfect solution to ensure social distancing and other precautionary measures. This could help maintain social distancing norms while generating additional business for retail outlets. [2]

From where we see it – there are three huge risks of allowing liquor sales in the current scenario (especially online):

  • Social distancing – home delivery allows us to manage social distancing.
  • Health practices – Most restaurants and open businesses are actively talking about the norms they follow for best health practices – infrared thermometers, cleanliness, use of sanitizers, etc. Liquor businesses are not known to follow these.
  • Identity risk – Alcohol cannot be sold to under-age customers. And neither can (or should) it be sold above certain volumes.

With KwikID, at least the identity assessment and risk can be managed. Right from age-restriction checks, geo-fencing, address verification, VCIP Digital KYC solutions – KwikID has been designed for Regulated Entities, and has adapted itself to similar and simpler customer onboarding.

Using inbuilt functionalities like OCR, face match & real-time verification/authentication of government-issued documents, Kwik.ID enables the customer verification journey to be completed within a minute.

The age verification can be completed with just 2 simple steps:

  • Take a selfie
  • Provide valid government-issued ID proof like Aadhar, PAN, Driver’s license, Voter ID or Passport

Enabling alcohol sales through technology is a great idea. It helps keep these liquor shops viable, their staff employed, people happy, and state funds flowing. For delivery apps, liquor as a category increases the average order value and generates higher customer retention. Using smart Digital KYC partners like Kwik.ID can curtail the risk of delivery to underage customers, ease the verification process for retailers, reduce the task of delivery agents at the doorstep of the customer & enhance customer experience thereby creating a win-win situation for retailers, delivery apps and customers.

 To know more about Kwik.ID’s seamless e-KYC solution, please write to info@getkwikid.com.

[1] https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-states-are-so-keen-about-excise-duty-on-liquor-6393643/

[2]https://www.deccanherald.com/business/coronavirus-lockdown-30-liquor-industry-demands-govt-to-allow-online-sale-home-delivery-of-booze-833485.html

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Is your organisation eligible for digital KYC?

Recent regulatory changes have enabled financial institutions (banks, NBFC, fintechs, lending start-ups, insurance, etc.) to perform Video based KYC identification to on-board customers remotely.

  • Amendment to Master Direction (MD) on KYC by RBI, 9th January 2020
  • Clarification on KYC process and Usage of Technology for KYC, by SEBI, 24th April 2020
  • Press release by IRDA regarding Paperless KYC process through Aadhaar Authentication Services of UIDAI, 24th April 2020

Digitally streamlined KYC verification has spread through the industry like a breath of fresh air, even as it eases the customer onboarding process for financial and non-BFSI companies.

Owing to the much-needed easing of the burden on time and manpower costs, industry experts have welcomed this decision allowing them to leverage digital channels for the Customer Identification Process (CIP). The video-based customer identification process will make presence-less and paperless banking a reality.

This Video KYC verification is carried out by capturing a live photo of the customers and their official valid document during video sessions using smartphones. Geotagging done by capturing the latitude and longitude of the location where the photo was taken will confirm if the customer was in India while submitting the proof.

As customers do not need to submit physical copies of identity proof, the possibilities for identity theft are eliminated. This, coupled with the advantages of lower KYC costs and seamless onboarding experience for borrowers, definitely makes it an attractive alternative to the current physical KYC.

Even though this method is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced face-matching technology to establish the user’s identity, the real onus of customer identification remains with the official. Hence, it is mandatory that this task will have to be performed only by officials of the Regulated Entities (REs).

This has definitely come as a blessing to fintech start-ups as they will not be required to invest in any equipment nor bear the cost of sending an official to remote locations for customer identification. Any organization looking to reap the benefits of Digital KYC will need to find the perfect technological partner who can provide them with the right tools to simplify their customers’ KYC journey.

The easing of the KYC norms by the Government might have made your company eligible for Digital KYC but is your organization tech ready to harness it?

To know more about Kwik.ID’s seamless e-KYC solution, please write to info@getkwikid.com.

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Optical Character Recognition: Revolutionizing the Know-Your-Customer Process

Traditional KYC procedures are infamously labour-intensive. They generally involve making a trip to a branch office and manually filling out forms that are time-consuming, costly, and limited to office hours.

Customers today expect instant gratification and will accept nothing less than real-time digital services round the clock. With digital competitors lurking around every corner to entice dissatisfied customers, it is imperative that companies don’t appear to be creating unnecessary hurdles whilst adhering to regulatory guidelines. This, coupled with the physical challenges of conducting business-as-usual during a global lockdown, creates more room for innovation than we’ve ever witnessed before.

Innovation in Isolation

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that recognizes text within a digital image and is used to convert virtually any kind of images containing text into machine-readable data. Prior to OCR technology, the only way to digitize printed paper documents was to re-type the text manually. This was not only time consuming but also increased the possibilities of human error.

While OCR is commonly used to recognize text in scanned documents, its technology is also used in data entry automation, indexing documents for search engines, automatic number plate recognition, as well as assisting the blind and visually impaired. It has been exceedingly useful in transforming historic newspapers and texts into searchable formats by digitizing them.

Optimizations through Machine Learning

A few common problems encountered by OCR over the years, such as blurs, glares, incorrect image capture are now being tackled by the use of Machine Learning. Obviously, conversion accuracy is important, and most OCR software delivers 98% to 99% accuracy.[1]

OCR solution by Kwik.ID:

The OCR solution offered by Kwik ID enables instant verification of OVD’s like Aadhaar, PAN, VoterID, Passport, and Driver’s License. It makes it easier to detect frauds through signature matching tools and leverages ML to spot problematic information. Furthermore, Kwik.ID also promises its customers of Video KYC at low bandwith with its collection of the Best Video KYC tools.

We have built a state of the art OCR engine that extracts meaningful information from the image of an identity card using the following module

  • Rotation and cropping of Image
  • Raw text detection from natural image
  • Extraction of meaningful data from Raw text
  1. Rotation and cropping of Image

For the text detection module to work properly, it’s essential to remove the background noise and make the ID card image horizontal with 0 degrees. However, since the image of the ID card is provided by an end-user, it may contain a lot of background noise & can be at any angle. This module helps in the perfect alignment of the image & removal of the background noises.

Raw image
Output after processing

2. Raw text detection from natural image

Once the card image is cropped and rotated, it is provided to the ML engine that detects text in the image. These detected texts are then extracted from the image along with their corresponding coordinates.

3. Extraction of meaningful data

In the final step, we extract meaningful information from the detected text in step two. However, just detecting raw text is not enough. We need to identify which text represents which information. For example, if two names are detected in an image, which one is the father’s name, and which one is the card holder’s name should be segregated. 

Here the coordinates extracted with each text play the role. Based on different types of cards, the extraction engine contains different templates for each type of ID card to identify the position of details.

While not a new technology, OCR has been fine-tuned via AI & ML making it an indispensable tool for quicker customer onboarding and thereby ensuring smoother Video KYC verification.

To know more about Kwik.ID’s seamless e-KYC solution, please write to info@getkwikid.com.

[1] https://tdwi.org/articles/2018/03/05/diq-all-how-accurate-is-your-data.aspx