Following the release of its ‘Streamlining verification in emerging markets’ guide, Sumsub has stated that document-free onboarding is a “promising reality” for businesses in various markets.
Sumsub researched several countries who are embracing key digitalization trends, particularly the case for identity verification, where large-scale digital ID initiatives have been replacing paper documents.
This allows local users to become accustomed to database verification, rather than physically scanning and uploading their IDs. Therefore, government databases may well replace document-based verification in the near future, allowing businesses to drastically simplify user onboarding in these regions.
In its findings, Sumsub found over 95% of Indians and Indonesians hold digital IDs linked to government databases, with an overwhelming majority of Indians already signed up to the country’s biometric ID system.
Indonesians have also embraced e-KTP cards linked to a government database of citizen identities and biometrics. The country has the largest and fastest-growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, expected to reach $130 billion by 2025.
Other highlights from the guide include 90 million Nigerians already registered for a National Identity Number (NIN), which allows companies to verify people without dealing with potentially forged documents, despite only 5.4% of worldwide fraud detected.
The biggest KYC challenges in Argentina are poor quality cameras and photos, which lead to verification failure, with online identity fraud impacting markets in Brazil also.
More than half of the documents forged in Brazil do not contain MRZs (machine-readable zones), which makes them especially easy to fabricate.
In the guide, Sumsub covers how document-free verification can streamline user onboarding in developing countries, enabling companies to onboard 2bn people without needing them to upload their IDs.
This method, which Sumsub calls 1-click verification, uses government databases to speed up onboarding from 50 seconds to 4.5 seconds on average, helping improve pass rates by 35% on average, compromising data quality, security and user experience.
“Businesses in the fintech, crypto, gambling and trading sectors can use our guide to learn more about document-free verification, as well as the specifics of national documents, local user habits, fraud trends and AML regulations in developing countries, and more,” said Andrew Sever, Co-Founder and CEO of Sumsub.
“All this will help navigate the verification landscape in Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Nigeria, with the right insights to seize market opportunity and deal with local KYC and AML challenges.”
