Category: Digital transformation

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alcoholecommerce covid19 customer identification Customeronboarding Digital transformation DigitalKYC Digitalonboarding KwikID KYC liquorecommerce OCR Social Distancing socialdistancing

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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BFSI customer identification Customeronboarding Digital transformation DigitalKYC Digitalonboarding Face AI face match Fintech KwikID KYC Payment Banks Social Distancing V-CIP Video KYC VideoKYC

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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BFSI Customeronboarding Digital transformation DigitalKYC Digitalonboarding Fintech KwikID KYC OCR Social Distancing V-CIP Video KYC VideoKYC

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

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BFSI Customeronboarding Digital transformation DigitalKYC Digitalonboarding Fintech Gaming Insurance KwikID KYC Payment Banks Social Distancing Travel V-CIP Video KYC VideoKYC Wallets

Embracing a Digital Future

With social distancing being the need of the hour, businesses have to find ways to ensure their continuity. This largely revolves around companies making their products and services available online.

The COVID-19-induced lockdown and consequent social distancing norms have especially opened up new avenues for companies offering digital customer verification. Most sectors have witnessed a boom in demand for digital KYC, including online education, matrimonial companies, gaming, crypto exchanges, and more[1].

The Finance Ministry, in turn, has permitted 29 insurance companies and 9 stock/securities entities to undertake Aadhaar authentication services[2]. This will be particularly beneficial for small and retail investors vis-à-vis the current lockdown situation, as they don’t need to provide physical documents as proof for KYC.

Further, the IAMAI has indicated that the time is right to replace lengthy in-person verification processes with comprehensive remote e-KYC innovations. This will help the financial services and payments industry to tide over the temporary setback caused due to the infeasibility of carrying out physical KYC for a long time to come.

The lockdown is now also forcing the loan and card issuance industry to prioritize digital lending. Granting of unsecured loans and issuance of credit cards while sitting at home could and very likely become the new normal, and all with zero paperwork. Think of the possibilities wherein through VCIP Digital KYC solutions an official could validate the customer’s documents instantly over video!

The current KYC process doesn’t incorporate social distancing as it still requires an in-person verification for OSV (Originally Seen & Verified) of OVDs (Officially Valid Documents). This crucial step in the KYC process can seamlessly be eliminated by leveraging new technology solutions, like Video KYC, to enable digital onboarding of customers.

Video KYC verification also enables risk management solutions like tracking and cybersecurity and containment of financial fraud. The AI and data analytic tools embedded in these solutions can streamline the lending process, thereby resulting in better underwriting and further reductions of costs in lending and collections.

 It’s time for us to take a leap ahead.

The Future is Now!

Learn more on how to seamlessly conduct KYC using Kwik.ID’s Digital & Video KYC solution at https://getkwikid.com/ or write to us at info@getkwikid.com.

[1] https://ibsintelligence.com/ibs-journal/ibs-news/video-kyc-covid19-forcing-digitization-banks-online-education/

[2] https://www.deccanherald.com/business/29-insurance-cos-9-securities-related-entities-can-collect-aadhaar-for-kyc-829910.html

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BFSI Customeronboarding Digital transformation DigitalKYC Digitalonboarding KwikID KYC Social Distancing V-CIP Video KYC VideoKYC

4 Easy Steps to Improve Customer Onboarding Experience

38% of banking industry customers claim that customer experience is the most important criterion in choosing an appropriate bank.[1] Creating rewarding and positive customer experience should be a priority for all financial institutions (FIs).

Advancing with digital times, most customers today expect their experience to be convenient, friendly, digital and personalized. This is only possible if they incorporate the best Video KYC tools and bring about Digital KYC verification for the customers.

A large number of customers drop out of the onboarding process because of frustration with paper or the volume of information required.[1] According to Accenture Banking 2020[2], digital transformation has improved customer experiences by up to 25% in the banking sector alone.

The onboarding process is the first point of interaction between a financial institution and its customers, and a great onboarding creates the foundation of a longer value-driven relationship. The current offline and physical onboarding of new customers is a long process and is especially difficult for customers in remote areas, far from branches. Institutions have been investing in digitizing the onboarding process for years now, creating experiential improvements, rendering Video based KYC identification possible, with lowered costs, and higher value for customers.

We feel that great onboarding is built on some easy principles – Some easy steps for improving the onboarding process to provide users with the experience they desire are as follows:

1. It’s all about first impressions

In the digital medium, FIs have less than 20 seconds to persuade a potential customer to stay on with their site/ offer. Also, digital channels are converging. That is why developing an effective landing page for both mobile and laptop for potential and returning customers is where truly top-quality customer acquisition/onboarding begins. The no-frills example of Google Search page is one of the greatest case studies in this area.

2. Do not limit a customer’s options

Financial institutions need to cater to omnichannel customer journeys. Customers may begin their journey on one channel and can complete it via another channel. Providing different channels (mobile application, website, call centres, business correspondents and/or in-person), managing critical information flow seamlessly in real-time, and creating Aha! moments gives customers the required flexibility and increased satisfaction.

3. Be dynamic

Traditional experiences were static. If you ask the same question twice, you get the same answer. Modern technologies bring dynamism to the operations. When people repeat a question, it often means that they were not satisfied with the first answer. The onus of better comprehension is suddenly on the institution. This is where most leading institutions use advanced analytics, machine learning and AI to understand customers and recommend services/ offers to them. Most of these capabilities are back-end investments to create front-end moments. But for onboarding, our focus should be to minimise the effort that a consumer has to make while enrolling.

4. Reduce average customer TAT for onboarding

In certain lending journeys, for a customer, the end to end TAT (from being a first stage lead/ prospect to starting her journey with the institution) can be more than 30 days! In the current age and time, it sounds like a civil offence to make someone wait that long for delivering the product/ service.

Whether it is the core components, such as KYC for a regulated entity, or process ingenuities, such as Tele-verification/ Tele-PD, customers expect ease, flexibility, and instant gratification.

For instance, the entire onboarding journey for a FI can be 3-5 minutes, without significantly compromising the expected prudence/ risk management/ policy standards. From Document/ ID verification, Video KYC, bureau checks, referral checks, tele-verification, document signing, payment/ bank account verification, disbursal – most processes are ready to be moved to their digital equivalents.

With RBI approval of Video KYC, banks enable their customers to complete the KYC process from the comfort of their homes using Video based Customer Identification Process. This improves the customer experience and sets a positive tone encouraging further cooperation.

But how can banks conduct Video KYC?

Kwik.ID by Think Analytics provides for instant verification through the usage of cutting-edge technologies like OCR, Database verification, Face Matching, Liveliness detection and Video KYC in simple UX supporting Aadhaar XML, PAN, DL, Passport & Voter ID.

To find out more about how Kwik.ID can help you ease the process of customer onboarding, do write to us at info@getkwikid.com.

[1] https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/lu/Documents/technology/lu-digital-onboarding-financial-services-digital-natives-112017.pdf

[2] https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/banking/commercial-banking-top-trends-2020