The ability to onboard new customers digitally and securely, while meeting stringent KYC regulations, has gone from ‘nice to have to a must have’ facility in what seems like no time at all. Douglas Blakey speaks with MoneYou and tech partner Mitek about their successful collaboration
ABN AMRO’s digital subsidiary MoneYou offers savings accounts, mortgages and other financial services across The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria.
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The facility to offer a seamless and compliant way for new customers to apply for a new product is no luxury – it is a business necessity.
At the same time, as with all digital banks, it must verify the new customer’s identity and comply with KYC regulations.
RBI discusses with MoneYou Chief Operations Officer Theo van Bon why the bank elected to adopt Mitek’s proposition.
RBI: Why Mitek? There is other firms claiming to offer similar kind of propositions-what swung ABN AMRO/MoneYou in favour of Mitek?
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By GlobalDataTheo van Bon (TvB) Ultimately, it was a combination of the product and our personal relationship. Being just around the corner in the Netherlands always helps, and being able to offer the ability to work with a Dutch team that is part of a very mature company with a robust roadmap and product offering was a winning combination.
RBI: Does the project cover all of MoneYou’s products?
TvB: Mitek worked with MoneYou when they were a savings account provider. As they expand their offerings, we’re looking forward to working with them across all of their banking products.
RBI: What has been the attitude of the local regulator? One of the inhibitors to full digital onboarding in certain markets, such as in France or Italy, has perhaps slowed the rate of innovation? Or in Spain, where ImaginBank required new customers to print off a signed contract and have a courier collect it…?
TvB: The local regulator has been favourable to digital solutions — in fact, the Netherlands will have several top banks either live or going live soon with digital forms of ID verification. Additionally, AML5 and PSD2 regulations have language about digital solutions being an acceptable alternative for customer verification. Overall the regulator in the Netherlands seems to be very openminded regarding digital ID verification.
RBI: – Is this a first in the local market and is this giving MoneYou a competitive advantage?
TvB: It’s not quite a first. MoneYou’s parent company, ABN AMRO rolled out digital identity verification with PIN and the use of a selfie. It certainly gives them a speed and usability advantage over the status quo. Many potential bank account applicants using digital channels still need to scan or fax in an ID document, or even go through the process of presenting themselves in person at a physical branch to complete an account opening.
René Hendrikse, Vice President and Managing Director for EMEA at Mitek tells RBI that the firm’s prospects for future growth across a number of markets is hugely positive.
“With the ability to support a wide variety of documents across Europe, we’re always looking for the next opportunity. With the latest AML and KYC regulations lowering the threshold for KYC checks, the need for a fast, seamless ID verification for payments and payments processing has become a key pain point, says Hendrikse.
He adds: “The mandatory registration of SIM cards in many countries in the EU, including Belgium, France, Spain and Germany, is driving the need for a simple, secure and cost effective digital ID verification option for many telecom operators. “
Hendrikse says that beyond those markets, Mitek is seeing a demand for ever more digital, instant experiences.
“While user experiences often suffer when regulation-driven ID checks come into play, with digital ID verification we’re allowing financial service providers to bridge the gap between user expectation and required customer due diligence.”
Meantime, Mitek is focused on growing demand for its services in Europe and North America but is seeing interest across the globe for digital ID verification.
“Whether it’s providing ID verification and allowing users to submit trailing documents with their phone for a loan application, verifying someone is who they claim to be in a sharing economy rental or transaction or allowing users who have been locked out of their P2P payment account to re-authenticate, the number of applications for digital ID verification is as limitless as the digital economy itself.”
Looking ahead, the advent of PSD2 offers further scope for new business wins.
“It will accelerate the adoption of digital ID verification. Beyond the impact to traditional banks, companies and financial service providers building on the open API will trigger the creation of new types of financial services that we haven’t even thought of yet.
“These new financial services, however innovative, will still need to meet the requirements for KYC and AML regulations.
“With Open API we can start to see more options for ID verification based on banking information. The combination of being able to validate customers with their ID document, and being able to use their financial history as a second factor of authentication as well as part of the application can create further opportunities for financial services.”
