Say Cheese! Video ID Verification for Banks Gains Popularity
Austria’s Erste Bank und Sparkassen can now verify new customers’ IDs via video. The functionality has been developed with IDnow and introduced a few weeks following the approval by the country’s Financial Market Authority, reports Paybefore sister publication Banking Technology.
Using the IDnow Video-Ident technology, new customers can “identify themselves directly via video chat, thus saving themselves the time and effort involved in visiting a branch office for this purpose,” Erste Bank said.
This can be done via desktop computers as well as tablets and smartphones. Austrian citizens can use passports, national ID cards and driver’s licenses to verify their identities. This new feature applies to current accounts and student accounts only, but the service will become available for other products over the course of this year, the bank says. “We are the first large Austrian bank to offer this innovative option,” said Thomas Schaufler, chief retail officer of Erste Bank. Opening an account now takes less than 10 minutes, according to Erste Bank.
This is how the process works:
- Customers upload the photograph from a government-issued photo ID
- Data is then automatically transferred from the ID to the relevant form
- Customers fill in their personal data
- Customers select a preferred bank branch on a city map via a geolocation feature
- Customers confirm identity via video chat using IDnow Video-Ident
Other banks are also using similar technology for customer onboarding. Late last year, for instance, Self Bank, the Spain-based online subsidiary of France’s Boursorama financial services group, said it will register new customers via video-conferencing, biometrics and electronic signatures, a move that could reduce time and costs associated with the onboarding process while improving the customer experience.
Related stories:
- Spanish Online Bank Uses Biometrics, Videos to Speed up Customer Onboarding
- Blog: 5 Ways to Make Prepaid Card Onboarding Less Painful for Consumers
- Money20/20: The Future ATM Features Biometrics, Leaner Look
