Equifax has launched a document verifier solution to provide faster identity authentication for financial product applications using facial recognition.
The solution, it says, can verify whether an applicant is genuine in a matter of seconds by comparing a live image of the applicant with a photograph of their passport or driving licence, both taken on a smartphone or webcam enabled device.
The automated technology can recognise potential tampering or anomalies on official documents from over 200 countries. It also employs enhanced ‘liveness’ detection which detects even the slightest movement when the applicant is taking a photo of their face, ensuring fraudsters are unable to create a match using a static image of an applicant.
Liveness detection: A spoof attack, a type of presentation attack, is the use of an artificial replica of a biometric used in an attempt to circumvent a system. “Liveness detection” is a method used to recognize a presentation attack.
SOURCE: LivDet Liveness Detection Competition Series
At present, banks, mortgage providers and utilities appear the primary targets of the technology, while insurers appear some way behind other financial services in deploying biometric technologies at point of sale. Last year Standard Chartered rolled out finger print and voice recognition technologies to its predominantly Asian retail customer base, while HSBC and Barclays have also developed similar plans.
John Marsden, Head of ID and Fraud at Equifax, said the priority was to help financial services companies cut fraud. “Fraud is estimated to account for an annual loss of £193bn, and changing the way we verify identities will go a long way to help combat the issue. Our recent research, conducted with YouGov, showed that 56% of people online would prefer to use biometric security measures to access their financial accounts. This is also reflected in the positive reaction to using biometric technology in daily life, for example with e-passports or to unlock your smartphone.
“The ability to electronically capture and check documents such as Driving License and Passport against a face reduces impersonation and can improve both security and speed of service. This can be used at any part in the insurance lifecycle, but particularly at claim stage where Organised Crime Gangs will be challenged with further steps to authenticate that they are who they say they are and indeed, the biometric recorded for future comparison. An ancillary ability for insurers is the use of optical character recognition (OCR) for a Driving License, enabling better customer experience and facilitating DVLA ‘My License’ checks.”
Be the first to comment