KYC/KYB compliance technology provider FinClusive said today it’s partnering with Verida and cheqd to launch an end-to-end platform for the creation and issuance of reusable and verifiable credentials that can be checked in real-time without impacting the privacy of clients. The partners say it’s a key innovation that promises to streamline client onboarding in both traditional finance and the nascent Web3 industry.
What they’re offering is a plug-and-play platform that can handle the KYC/KYB requirements of any financial services organization, and generate verifiable credentials that are reusable and portable, with full client privacy and embedded compliance.
The partnership builds on an earlier proof-of-concept demonstrated by FinClusive and Verida, which provides a mobile wallet for storing verifiable credentials. With the addition of cheqd into the mix, FinClusive said it can now offer the essential network infrastructure for Web3 companies to issue and verify credentials in seconds.
With their new solution, the companies are looking to tackle some of the most significant headaches faced by organizations in the traditional customer onboarding and verification process, which is both expensive and time-consuming. Issuing digital credentials that can be reused, helps to eliminate the high costs associated with KYC/KYB. Moreover, with its instantaneous check feature for AML assistance, risk scoring and other background screenings, the solution makes it simpler than ever to meet compliance requirements. Finally, by integrating real-time and verifiable data sharing into the solution, the companies say they can provide maximum assurance for businesses, without requiring them to perform any manual checks.
By addressing these headaches, Finclusive says it’s bringing significant value to businesses, reducing their operating costs and improving the efficiency of their screening processes.
Streamlined Customer Onboarding
Each of the partners brings its strengths to the table, offering a variety of capabilities that are needed to create a regulatory-compliant process for verifying and sharing KYC credentials. FinClusive handles the initial identity verification checks with support for more than 170 countries, while cheqd’s Credential Service enables verifiable digital credentials to be issued, based on the results of those checks, and shared with other parties. As for Verida, it provides a decentralized wallet infrastructure for businesses and individuals to cryptographically store their KYC/KYB credentials inside a secure Verida Vault.
As the companies explained, the biggest advantage for businesses and individuals is that they will only ever have to undergo KYC/KYB once, and then use their verified credentials to access any application or service without constantly repeating that process. However, the solution goes further than similar offerings, leveraging FinClusive’s compliance tech and cheqd’s infrastructure platform to provide instant lookups for AML screenings and other background checks, meaning that the credentials can be verified, issued, managed, shared and revoked at any time.
The beauty of this platform is that customers can maintain self-sovereign control of their KYC/KYB data, in keeping with regulations such as Europe’s existing GDPR and upcoming eIDAS, and the U.S. CCPA standard. Previously, where KYC/KYB data would have to be shared with multiple financial services providers, this information remains private yet fully verifiable. In this way, the partners are creating a more efficient market for identity verification while eliminating the need to replicate and store sensitive information.
Real-Time Monitoring
Uniquely, FinClusive and its partners can facilitate enhanced and ongoing KYC/KYB processes beyond the initial onboarding stage. In some financial markets, service providers have additional obligations such as ongoing client monitoring, dynamic risk scoring and continuous AML screening checks. Using FinClusive’s tools, the solution can automate real-time client monitoring processes within an easy-to-use dashboard, while also enabling the simultaneous verification and live “double-check” of KYC/KYB data.
Disrupting Regulated Industries
The companies cite several obvious use cases for their new solution, such as onboarding at any bank or nonbank financial service, plus any virtual asset service provider, at low cost and with more streamlined efficiency. The solution will also support KYC/KYB for eCommerce and online retailers, access to age-restricted content, government services and cross-border transactions. Finally, it also paves the way for KYC/KYB data to be paired with educational, employment, loyalty and health credentials to build higher levels of assurance and reinforce digital identities and reputations.
Following today’s announcement, the companies say they’re expecting to roll out the first verifiable credentials for KYC/KYB within the first quarter of this year, kick-starting a revolution that will modernize client onboarding and monitoring across both traditional finance and the Web3 industry.
Alex Tweeddale, a product lead at cheqd, said the collaboration is extremely innovative, paving the way for real-time monitoring and verification in a fully decentralized and private manner. “This is completely new to the market and enables us to provide a fully regulatory-compliant solution for customer onboarding and monitoring, while simultaneously being future-proofed for the new eIDAS 2.0 regulation for digital credentials,” he said. “This can revolutionize the existing paradigm for customer data sharing, reducing costs and friction within existing regulated industries and emerging markets where identity verification is currently too costly.”