Choosing An Efficient Verification Vendor—Complete Guide 2023

When onboarding users from different countries, companies face a variety of challenges—including the need to detect fraudsters and comply with regulations. At the same time, companies want to onboard a high number of new users, which is difficult to do with a lengthy verification process. 

Knowing the regulatory specifics of every country is another challenge. Some companies delegate this to a separate verification vendor for each operating region, which costs a lot of money. 

Instead, companies working with clients from different countries can go for a vendor with expertise in all regional regulations. It’s even better if this vendor can provide a company with customizable workflows that can adapt to document specifics of each country. 

When choosing a verification vendor, companies can’t just rely on the first one they encounter. That’s why we’ve prepared a checklist containing the key factors to consider. 

What do verification vendors offer?

Verification vendors provide companies with identity verification software, which checks whether a customer is a legitimate person to prevent fraud, money laundering, and terrorism financing. In many countries, companies working with finance are obliged by law to employ such software. 

Key factors to consider

Here are some key factors a company should consider about a potential verification vendor:

• Compliance with regulations
• Security and privacy measures
• User experience 
• Ease of integration
• Customer support
• Accuracy and reliability
• Pricing 

In the sections below, we explain how to evaluate these factors in more detail.

Compliance with regulations

Before choosing a verification vendor, a company should learn about the solutions offered by each provider and check whether they can comply with regulations. The compliance tools that verification vendors implement can be separated into two categories:

• Know Your Customer (KYC)
• Know Your Business (KYB)

KYC checks include:

• Document verification 
• Liveness check 
• Proof of Address
• Video identification 
• Anti-money laundering checks (AML) 
• Customizable verification flows 
• Document pre-checks
• Face authentication

Most KYC checks can be applied to businesses as well. KYB-specific solutions include: 

• Business verification 
• UBO verification
• Corporate documents verification 

Vendors may also offer transaction monitoring (solutions, also known as transaction monitoring. This technology allows companies to easily track transactions and detect suspicious activities in a timely manner. Some transaction monitoring features include:

• Corporate AML 
• Custom risk scenarios (rules)
• Case investigation 
• Reporting

Security and privacy measures

It’s essential to ensure the vendor’s security system and privacy measures are trustworthy. Usually, a company can do it by requesting audit certificates, such as: 

• iBeta 
• PCI DSS
• GDPR 
• CCPA 
• BaFin 
• CySec
• SOC2

These certifications demonstrate the security of a vendor’s security systems. However, it’s still worth asking a few additional questions before moving forward: 

• Does the vendor have the technology to tackle sophisticated biometric fraud? 
• Does the vendor have device fingerprinting? 
• Does the vendor have AI that detects photoshopped documents?
• How does the vendor store its data?

It’s also necessary to ask whether the vendor can help the company stay compliant with regulations in operating countries. Therefore, it’s worth checking whether the provider is familiar with different regional regulations (e.g., 6AMLD, BSA, etc.)

User experience 

Vendors should have features that quickly process users, leading to high customer retention. These include: 

• Fast fail – when an uploaded document doesn’t contain all the required information, the system offers the user to retake the photo before proceeding to the next step
• Autocapture – the system automatically takes an optimal photo of a document and converts it into text
• Language and country support – the system wide range of languages and can adapt to specifics in different countries
• Workflow builder – the system enables tailoring the verification flow to each user segment

If a vendor can provide all these features, the user experience will be as smooth as possible. This means that new customers won’t need to spend much time registering and are more likely to use the company’s services. 

Ease of integration

A proper verification vendor should be easy to implement. Here’s what should come included:

• WebSDK integration 
• MobileSDK integration 
• API integration 
• Integration through a verification link or QR-code 

It’s also important to know the time it takes to integrate the solution. 

Customer support 

Companies need to check whether the vendor provides the following services:

• Free technical support 
• Free customer success
• Compliance specialist support 
• Free solution architects for the integration process 

Accuracy, reliability, and pricing 

Before onboarding a new verification vendor, ask the following questions” 

• Which countries can this vendor process? 
• In which languages can the vendor process identity documents? 

When it comes to pricing, the company should look at all the packages offered by the vendor and ask the following questions:

• How is the pricing model organized? 
• Are there any setup, licensing, or support fees? 
• What is the price per verification/transaction?

Conclusion

There’s no definitive answer to what makes for the ultimate verification vendor. However, a proper vendor will have an all-in-one verification platform to protect against fraudsters, compliance-related issues, and user drop-offs. Additionally, it should provide access to a legal team specializing in AML regulations across the world. 

To get even more tips on choosing the right vendor for your company, check out our Buyer’s Guide to Verification Platforms.

FAQ

• What is an identity verification system?

  An identity verification system checks the identity of customers, ensuring their legitimacy. This is traditionally done through obtaining personal information and then comparing it to the government-issued document provided by the customer. Depending on the jurisdiction, the exact information collected and verification methods will vary. That’s why a customizable all-in-one solution can benefit companies working with users from different countries.

• What is an IDV vendor?

  An IDV (identity verification) vendor provides verification solutions which help companies stay compliant with the regulations.

• What is the best identity verification service?

  There’s no definitive answer regarding the best verification service provider. However, there’s a set of factors that can help a company choose the vendor that fits best:

  • Compliance with regulations
  • Security and privacy measures
  • User experience
  • Ease of integration
  • Customer support
  • Accuracy and reliability
  • Pricing