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Regulation Update: New Guidance for Implementation of Companies House Reforms

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) came into force 12 months ago with the aim of strengthening the UK’s efforts to combat economic crime via a wide-ranging suite of reforms.

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Client Onboarding

A Message from FullCircl's CEO: A New Chapter in Our Journey with nCino

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Andrew Yates

As I write this, I find myself reflecting on the remarkable journey we’ve all been on. When Mike, Steve, and I founded the company, nearly two decades ago, we named our company Artesian, after a certain type of well that draws water from the ground using natural forces. We wanted to automate the extraction of value in much the same way, albeit from unstructured data from the web, social media and the news (when digital news was just getting going). What started as a business intelligence platform aimed at transforming how companies leveraged insights to have better conversations every day, became a platform that facilitates better decisions every day, something much bigger than we could have ever imagined.

A few years ago, we took a bold step acquiring and joining forces with Justin Fitzpatrick and the team at DueDil, pioneers in company intelligence and KYB. This move not only brought invaluable talent and technology into our fold, but it also set the stage for our rebrand to FullCircl - a name that embodies our mission to create a truly end-to-end customer lifecycle platform. More recently, the acquisition of W2 Global Data Solutions, working with Warren Russell and team, leaders in KYC and AML compliance, helped us strengthen our capabilities with the addition of onboarding orchestration, giving regulated companies a complete toolkit to identify, acquire, verify, onboard, and monitor customers seamlessly.

Today, I’m incredibly excited to announce another milestone in our journey: FullCircl is now part of nCino. This acquisition marks a pivotal moment for our company, and it’s an opportunity, I believe, will benefit every customer, employee, and partner.

Why nCino?

For those who may not know, nCino is the leading provider of intelligent, best-in-class banking solutions, providing financial institutions with a comprehensive platform that brings together people and data and enables financial institutions to enhance strategic decision-making, risk management, and customer satisfaction. Our relationship with nCino has been building since we formally partnered in 2023, working together to integrate FullCircl’s capabilities into their intelligent platform. During this time, it became clear that our combined strengths could offer something truly special to the financial services community.

Our shared customers - including some of the UK's leading financial institutions and innovative digital banks - are already seeing the benefits of this collaboration. By joining forces with nCino, we are now positioned to deliver even greater value, expanding the reach of FullCircl’s frontline, onboarding, due diligence, and risk monitoring capabilities across Europe.

What This Means for You, Our Customers

As a FullCircl customer, you can look forward to significant enhancements in the services we provide. Our powerful business-rules engine, developed through years of collaboration and input from industry pioneers, will be part of a global platform that simplifies the complexity of onboarding while helping to ensure regulatory compliance. Imagine faster onboarding, integrated workflows, and access to real-time business data - all within a single system of record that streamlines your entire customer lifecycle, from acquisition to ongoing monitoring.

The joint proposition between nCino and FullCircl is about more than just software integration; it's about transforming how you engage with your customers. Together, we will offer a solution that not only makes compliance easier but drives profitability and growth for your business.

For the financial institutions we share with nCino, this acquisition enhances our combined capabilities and empowers your teams with even more tools to serve your customers better, faster, and with greater transparency. The FullCircl platform will now be complemented by nCino’s global reach and resources, making it possible for us to deliver even more value to your business.

We remain deeply committed to serving our non-financial businesses across various industries including insurance, gaming tech and telco. Many of you have leveraged FullCircl's capabilities to enhance business development efforts, reduce risk exposure and understand your customers and markets in your own unique contexts. Rest assured, these offerings will continue to be an integral part of our solution portfolio, and we will maintain our focus on helping all our clients - whether financial or non-financial - achieve their growth and compliance goals.

A Message to Our Team

To the entire FullCircl team, I want to extend my deepest gratitude for your dedication, sacrifice and focus. From the early days of Artesian to the strategic acquisitions of DueDil and W2 Global Data, you have been the driving force behind our success. This acquisition is a testament to everything we’ve achieved together. And now, as part of nCino, we have the opportunity to make an even bigger impact, on a global scale.

Our work is far from over - this is just the beginning of a new and exciting chapter. nCino values the innovation and expertise that each member of our team brings, and together we will continue to move forward at pace, delivering more powerful functionality for the frontline, unique onboarding capabilities, smarter compliance, and solutions that accelerate growth for our customers.

The Road Ahead

This acquisition marks an important step in our shared journey with nCino. With their support, we are ready to bring even more ideas and innovation to the table. We’ll be expanding our reach across Europe, bringing new capabilities to regulated institutions of all sizes, and continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible in client lifecycle management. The challenges are widespread, complex, and rapidly changing, and I am personally excited about continuing to find innovative ways to help our customers solve them.

Whether you’re a long-time FullCircl customer or new to our platform, rest assured that our commitment to your success remains stronger than ever. Together with nCino, we are ready to provide you with the tools, data, and insights you need to thrive in a rapidly changing regulatory environment.

Thank you for your continued trust and support. I am, and we are, excited to enter this next phase looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

--

Andrew

CEO & Co-Founder, FullCircl

Business Automation

Using AI to Streamline Compliance Processes

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Lucy Huntley

2024 is proving another standout year for the regulatory space, finding itself under the spotlight, for better and worse reasons. This month, The Fintech Times will look at some of the biggest issues regarding compliance and financial rules, as well as the solutions hoping to ease the compliance journey for firms and make the fintech world fairer and safer. FullCircl's Banking Success Director, Lucy Huntley, talks to the FinTech Times about the AI revolution in compliance and how it can be harnessed for growth.

Having already explored compliance challenges, penalties and solutions, we now turn our attention to the technology of the moment: AI.

While we’re well aware that AI is currently spoken about in absolutely every context, we also understand the huge impact it can have across sectors and operations. With this in mind, The Fintech Times reached out to industry experts to ask how AI will leave its mark on compliance for the fintech industry. Read the original FinTech Times article here.

AI promises ‘massive impact’ on compliance efficiency

Now is hardly the very beginning of AI supporting compliance processes, explains Lucy Huntley, banking success director at FullCircl. However, its potential impact on the space is yet to be fulfilled.

“In many respects, AI has been playing a significant role in automating compliance processes for a long-time now. AI has already transformed compliance processes in the fintech industry by making them faster, more accurate and more efficient. With AI, tasks including regulatory reporting and disclosure, data analysis, and risk assessments can be automated, saving time whilst also reducing errors and improving the customer experience, particularly at the onboarding stage.

“Likewise, machine learning algorithms continuously learn from data, improving accuracy over time. This means compliance teams can focus on more strategic tasks, while AI will always look to keep the company compliant!

“Looking to the future AI will have a massive impact on improving automation processes around document verification. Computer Vision (CV) for example is an emerging field of AI which enables a much deeper level of accuracy when cross-referencing the biometrics of a live selfie with a portrait on an ID document.”

“AI adoption in compliance is still in its early days, but is rapidly picking up speed,” explains Paul Cottee, director of compliance SME at NICE Actimize. “Currently, the adoption of AI centres around assisting with often mundane tasks: that is, for example, using a large language model to help speed up written tasks such as reports and filings; using AI to help score and prioritise surveillance alerts; and looking for patterns and relationships across large volumes of unstructured data.

“This is increasing the efficiency of the compliance function, both in terms of monitoring and supervisory activities, and also in administrative work, leaving the compliance officers with more time to devote to tasks requiring human judgment and decision-making.”

Saving compliance teams time

Hilary Wandall, chief ethics and compliance officer at business intelligence and data firm Dun & Bradstreet, also echoes this sentiment. She explains while AI can streamline compliance processes and save compliance teams time to spend elsewhere, firms need to be careful about how they implement it.

“AI is beginning to play a pivotal role in streamlining certain regulatory compliance processes within the fintech industry. The emergence of AI and ML tools has enabled companies to analyse vast amounts of data in real time, detecting patterns that indicate potential compliance risks, such as money laundering, sanctions, or fraud.

“This improves customer due diligence by concurrently cross-referencing many databases to verify identities with potential clients and any risks associated with them. The impact is profound, as AI-driven automation reduces costs, minimises human error, and enhances the speed and accuracy of compliance tasks. As compliance teams face increasing workloads due to new regulations, automation tools allow them to focus on more complex or ambiguous cases.

“However, the effectiveness of AI models primarily hinges on a business’s robust understanding of its data estate and the implementation of an adequate data governance system. AI is only as smart as the data that fuels it, making it imperative to introduce policies and adhere to data quality standards. Incorporating high-quality, comprehensive data enables teams to assess risk more accurately and make informed decisions, leading to proactive risk management and fostering innovation and competitive advantage in the industry.”

Assessing the risk

For Steve Bradford, senior vice president of EMEA at SailPoint, firms planning to implement AI into their compliance processes must be willing to ensure they have the correct amount of oversight on its use, as well as safeguard data to a high level.

“Fintechs should put risk analysis processes in place to help ensure regulatory compliance and prevent situations that could lead to fraud or data leakage. Through a unified, AI-enabled approach to identity security, organisations can ensure that staff have only as much access as is required to perform their assigned roles and responsibilities – no more, no less.

“Using AI speeds and streamlines identity decisions, something crucial given the pace at which businesses – and cyber threats – are evolving. This enables security teams to move faster and more effectively to spot and stop unnecessary, inappropriate, or potentially compromised access.

“Safeguarding data is business critical. With the stakes higher than ever before, fintechs must make full use of the available AI-driven tools and technology to gain better visibility and insight into the specific risks associated with user access. A carefully considered approach to identity security, with stringent policies on how access to data is managed and controlled, will help businesses keep compliant as well as stay one step ahead of cybercrime.”

Saving time and money

Bronwyn Boyle, CISO at PPRO, explains how the use of AI could save not only resource, but also reduce costs – although warns that this isn’t guaranteed: “AI is bringing multiple benefits to the fintech industry by automating compliance processes.

“Real-time monitoring of transactions and activities dramatically improves the time to detect potential compliance, security, or fraud issues, while machine learning enhances the ‘signal to noise’ ratio by correlating data points across multiple sources and reducing false positives.

“AI can help businesses save time, allowing fintechs to pool resources toward innovation and growth initiatives instead.

“While early cost reduction opportunities seem promising, the longer-term impacts on cloud computing costs and ESG footprints are yet to be fully understood. However, at this stage, businesses are expected to hire in new areas like AI management and compliance to ensure the technology is being used appropriately and in accordance with regulations.”

Streamlining processes

“As more organisations implement AI for compliance, one thing we are seeing is a reappraisal of the risk management process and the role of the compliance team,” explains Joel Lange, EVP and general manager for Dow Jones Risk & Research.

“Research is time-intensive and expensive, but with AI, processes such as negative news screening can be conducted more quickly than ever before. This means that compliance can be accelerated within the decision-making workflow, enabling organisations to assess at the very beginning of a potential relationship whether it should be pursued or not.

“This avoids the wider organisation wasting time and effort into developing a business opportunity that should never have got off the ground and helps to eradicate the stereotypical view of compliance as a blocker on activity.”

AI’s growing role in compliance

Finally, Gabriel Hopkins, CPO at Ripjar, weighs up just how influential AI could be in changing the face of compliance for fintechs: “AI is not a panacea, but it does provide some powerful tools to make lives easier.

“While much of the AI we talk about today is generative AI, established AI and ML capabilities also play an important role and teams should be careful to find the right tools for the right tasks. Historically, teams have been slow to adopt AI because of fears about predictability and explainability in a regulated setting. However, well-implemented models can have a significant difference in compliance activities, particularly when dealing with complex matching challenges.

“The potential for generative AI is even greater. Some uses are obvious. The drafting of narrative summaries for Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) can be supported by GenAI providing seed summaries which an analyst can quickly validate and then submit.

“Maybe more exciting is the chance to reinvent how compliance tasks are performed, powering virtual analysts to achieve, and sometimes surpass, human-level accuracy. Indeed, these tools can revolutionise compliance processes and help users save up to 200 hours annually.

“Analysis has shown that a virtual analyst can help with both false positives, which are incorrect risk flags, and false negatives, which there are existing risks that haven’t been flagged – both are endemic issues caused by dealing with very high volumes of matches. GenAI can reduce these inaccuracies, significantly enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of customer and counter-party screening.

“Compliance teams should continue to ensure that they carefully select the right AI capabilities and carefully validate the results on an initial and ongoing basis to ensure success.”

Current Affairs

What are the biggest challenges facing compliance teams?

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Lucy Huntley

2024 is proving another standout year for the regulatory space, finding itself under the spotlight, for better and worse reasons. This month, The Fintech Times spoke to industry experts including Lucy Huntley, FullCircl's Banking Success Director, to discuss some of the biggest issues regarding compliance and financial rules, as well as the solutions hoping to ease the compliance journey for firms and make the fintech world fairer and safer. Read the original FinTech Times article here.

Kicking off our regtech focus this month, we will look to establish the biggest challenges that companies currently face when trying to ensure compliance within the fintech industry.

Regulatory rules are constantly changing, with new ones being introduced at a rapid rate. While firms are often given time to transition and adapt to these changes, a vast number of challenges remain. But what are the biggest obstacles facing firms? We asked industry experts to find out.

Keeping compliance teams on their toes

“The regulatory framework evolves constantly, and it can be challenging for compliance teams to change their operations so frequently,” explains Olympe Leflambe, general counsel, legal and compliance at Mangopay, the payment infrastructure provider. “Even with agile teams and tools, changes can be disruptive, especially when legislation hasn’t yet caught up with technology”.

But it’s not just falling foul of regulatory rules that teams need to be wary of.

Leflambe continues: “In parallel, fraudsters leverage new technology very quickly (for instance, using deepfakes to circumvent liveness checks) and compliance teams must remain very vigilant about new controls not being outdated as a result.”

A ‘double-edged sword for compliance teams’

Matthew Franzyshen, business development manager at Ascendant Technologies, a full-service IT company, explains how the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has both positively and negatively impacted compliance.

“I think the pace with how technology is evolving is a double-edged sword for compliance teams. On one hand, these technological advancements help make the work more efficient, simple, and agile. It helps create a space where compliance teams can focus on hard-hitting issues rather than waste time on mundane work.

“However, the emergence of these technologies means that regulations to monitor their proper usage also crop up. Case in point is the wrongful usage of AI and machine learning, which poses tons of cybersecurity risks for companies. Tons of fraud and scams have come about due to these technologies, of which compliance teams need to prepare and be aware of to protect the integrity of the company. The biggest issue, though, is that new scams crop up faster than older ones are addressed. Keeping up with this can be a true headache.”

Changing state to state

For firms in the US, a fragmented regulatory landscape across states can also leave roadblocks for compliance teams to overcome explains Gale Simons-Poole, chief risk officer at BHG Financial.

“BHG occupies a distinct position in the lending landscape: we are a non-bank lender that works with banks and so we interact frequently with federal and state regulators. One of the biggest challenges that compliance teams are facing is making sure their teams are staying on top of ever-changing regulations.

“States have interests and priorities that differ from federal regulators, which makes this more challenging and even more important.

“Regulations also change every year, and it is imperative to keep a diligent eye on them, which is why BHG has built such a robust regulatory team with deep regulation and compliance expertise to ensure we’re staying on top of the shifts and that we are always in compliance.”

Preparing for DORA

Meanwhile, firms in the European Union have a different challenge to consider altogether. Guy Mettrick, industry vice president at process automation platform Appian, discusses the impact incoming regulatory rules could have.

“The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) represents a huge challenge for compliance teams. The regulation, coming into force in January 2025, will add the complexity of enhanced governance across the entire supply chain. In response, compliance teams must integrate sophisticated risk management across supply networks and third-party relationships.

“Renegotiating contracts and updating service-level agreements (SLAs) within tight deadlines adds to this burden. The increased compliance complexity and costs necessitate substantial investment in technology and training. Regular resilience testing and reporting further strain resources.

“Lastly, shifting towards a centralised compliance approach requires significant organisational restructuring and adopting advanced automation and AI technologies.”

‘Headache’ over new rules

“From a data privacy and cybersecurity perspective, I think the greatest challenge for compliance teams currently is keeping abreast of all the legislation, rules and regulations applicable to their organisation,” says Sarah Pearce, partner at law firm Hunton Andrews and Kurth.

“Compliance teams have robust GDPR frameworks in place but there are a wealth of other rules and regulations applicable to those operating in the financial services sector that require additional processes and procedures to be put in place – and new rules and regulations are constantly emerging.

“In the EU for example, the NIS2 Directive, introduces a new era of EU cybersecurity legislation and must be transposed into national law of the EU Member States by October 17, 2024. Also in the EU, DORA is specifically directed at the financial services industry and is aimed at strengthening the IT security of financial entities and making sure that the financial sector in Europe is able to stay resilient in the event of a severe operational disruption.

“The rise of AI and the EU AI Act, together with other laws emerging globally provides an additional headache for fintech compliance teams given the multiple use cases likely within such organisations.

“There will be some overlap for with existing requirements and compliance teams can, to some degree, leverage existing practices and frameworks but there are undoubtedly requirements coming in that are entirely new and will require extensive additional operational implementation.”

The rising cost of compliance

For Daniel Bedford, research analyst at Juniper Research, the rising cost of compliance is one of the biggest challenges facing compliance teams.

“The floor is constantly being raised, and leaving businesses to balance regulatory obligations and financial efficiency. Compliance cost encompasses the salaries of compliance staff and their training, regulatory reporting costs, investment in technology upgrades, audit and legal fees, and the cost of implementing new regulatory guidelines and procedures.

“Rising costs are driven by different factors for every organisation, often being dependent on the industries they operate in, such as financial services or healthcare, which have more stringent reporting requirements and heavier fines. For organisations with a more global reach, operating across multiple jurisdictions will result in businesses being subject to varying regulatory regimes, which can drive up the cost of compliance significantly.

“Additionally, specific industries or jurisdictions come with varying levels of regulatory complexity, with growth of standards, laws, and other regulations, which can make compliance more complex and more costly. In order to combat these difficulties, we recommend that compliance teams invest in future-proof technology, that can provide automation and high-throughput analysis, allowing compliance teams to unlock efficiencies better manage their resources, meaning humans can intervene at the right time and avoid manual administration.”

Addressing the challenges

Finally, Lucy Huntley, banking success director at FullCircl, shares insight into how firms can begin to address these challenges, urging them to aim for a well-balanced approach to compliance.

“New rules and updates are continually being introduced, and staying on top of them is no mean feat. It’s perhaps an unspoken challenge but compliance teams are often perceived as a roadblock to the delivery of superior customer experiences and therefore growth. The reality is actually the opposite, a well-balanced approach to compliance can have a hugely beneficial impact, both reputationally and financially, with fewer cases of fraud and money laundering.

“Technology has a key transformative role to play here. A move away from manual processes and workflows towards a more dynamic tech and data-driven compliance strategy helps keep pace in a way that balances the dual challenges of stringent regulatory compliance and delivery of superior customer experiences.”

Identity Verification

Explore the intersection of compliance and customer experience at the 2024 Transform Finance FinCrime Leaders’ Summit

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Ben Lachenal

On 7th-8thNovember, FullCircl will join 15 handpicked technology vendors and 45 expert speakers at the 2nd Transform Finance FinCrime Leaders’ Summit.  

As a headline sponsor of the event, we’re once again playing our part in answering the big questions currently being tackled the FinCrime community and encouraging innovation in response to the biggest challenges facing compliance and operations teams.

Financial Crime on the rise

The cost of financial crime is expected to hit $9.5 trillion. In the UK alone there were 1,664 recorded anti-money laundering (AML) events last year, that’s almost 2.5 events per 100,000 people. Financial institutions have reported a 64% increase in fraud attacks, with most noting that financial fraud is becoming more sophisticated, and more challenging to tackle. Likewise, according to UK government data, 55% of businesses experienced known or suspected fraud attempts last year.

This is putting huge pressure on compliance teams, especially when it comes to balancing the dual challenges of stringent regulatory compliance and delivery of superior customer experiences.

Consumer vs Compliance:  How to balance regulatory compliance with seamless customer experiences

Ben Lachenal, FullCircl’s identity solutions specialist, will take to the main stage on the first day of the event to explore how financial institutions can find the balance between compliance and conversion at a time when global KYC and AML regulation continue to evolve at pace, and customer expectations for more efficient onboarding experiences are becoming more demanding.

Joined by Daniel Holmes, Director of Banking, Identity and Market Strategy, this interactive roundtable discussion will delve into the latest trends and challenges in compliance to discover how real-time, compliant onboarding can lead to increased revenue and customer satisfaction.

Including FullCircl’s own research on customer expectations and how 500+ regulated businesses are currently approaching the challenge this is a not-to-be-missed session.

You’ll learn:

  • KYC & AML regulation: What information needs to be identified at account opening to remain compliant?
  • Customer expectations: How long do customers expect onboarding to take? What processes do they prefer? What drop-off rate should you be aiming for?
  • Revenue generation: How can customer onboarding be used as a competitive advantage? Why is real-time account opening the key to success?

Stay current with the latest FinCrime trends

The two-day event is an exclusive gathering of industry professionals in FinCrime, it promises engaging content and interactive workshops that will help you:

  • Stay on top of the latest compliance, KYC, scams, and cyber threats
  • Engage in the FinCrime community
  • Benchmark you organisation against innovative FinCrime leaders
  • Uncover the latest innovations from leading technology vendors
  • Gather actionable insights for tackling your biggest FinCrime challenges

Join FullCircl and you might even get a complimentary stay at the beautiful DeVere Wokefield Estate

Come and visit FullCircl to find out how we help financial institutions start smarter to grow faster, with compliance solved. Our suite of KYC, financial crime prevention, AML, and IDV software is trusted by 700+ clients to remain compliant and offer customers a seamless onboarding experience.

We have complimentary delegate tickets including an overnight stay at the exclusive De Vere Wokefield Estate, gala dinner, and access to all content streams for free.

Get in touch today.

Identity Verification

Types of Identity Verification Explained

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Ben Lachenal

Identity verification (ID&V) is more than just a security measure, it's a critical component of protecting businesses and their customers. Whether it’s in financial services, online gambling, e-commerce, or telecommunications, ensuring that customers are who they claim to be is essential for reducing fraud, complying with regulations, and building trust.

But what exactly are the different types of identity verification, and how can businesses choose the right methods? In this blog, we’ll explore the key identity verification techniques, their importance, and how they help regulated businesses meet evolving standards.

What is Identity Verification?

At its core, identity verification confirms that a person is who they say they are. This process prevents fraudsters from assuming false identities and ensures businesses only grant access to legitimate customers. However, the terms used around IDV, like identity proofing vs identity verification and identity validation vs verification, can often be confusing.

  • Identity proofing vs identity verification: Identity proofing refers to establishing that the attempt to verify identity is legitimate, for example that it’s not coming from a bot attempt. Whereas identity verification is the process of confirming that the information provided is correct and belongs to the person attempting to verified.
  • Identity validation vs verification: While validation ensures the accuracy of submitted data (like checking a name against government records), verification ties this data to the individual through things like photo ID or biometrics.

With various types of identity verification techniques, businesses can customise their approach to align with their specific compliance needs.

Why is Identity Verification Important?

In an era of rapidly increasing online interactions, identity verification serves as the first line of defence against fraud and identity theft. Identity verification and authentication are often paired to create a seamless but secure experience. Once an identity is verified, authentication ensures that users can access sensitive data or perform actions like transactions.

Businesses across various industries and jurisdictions must balance user experience with security. For instance, while frictionless processes improve customer satisfaction, inadequate IDV can expose a business to security breaches and regulatory penalties.

Compliance is another critical factor. Regulated industries like finance or healthcare face strict rules, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, requiring businesses to implement thorough identity verification checks. Let’s dive deeper into the steps involved in a full identity verification process.

The Full Identity Verification Process & Types of IDV

The identity verification process usually involves multiple layers to ensure maximum accuracy and security. Here’s an overview of how businesses can structure their verification process:

KYC Data Checks

The first step in any robust IDV process is a Know Your Customer (KYC) data check. This involves collecting personal information from the customer—such as name, address, date of birth, and government-issued identification numbers—and validating it against trusted databases. This ensures that the data provided matches official records.

In addition to validating this data, KYC checks are often required by law in sectors like banking, where regulations demand stringent identity proofing to prevent fraud and financial crime.

Document Verification and Biometrics

Once the initial KYC check is complete, businesses can move on to document verification. This involves having the customer submit physical or digital copies of official documents like a passport, driver’s license, or national ID card. Document verification tools use advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, to scan for forgery or tampering. This ensures the legitimacy of the documents provided.

Beyond document checks, businesses increasingly turn to biometric identity verification for an additional layer of security. Biometrics identity verification systems use facial recognition, fingerprints, or even voice recognition to confirm that the person submitting the documents is the same individual. This reduces the risk of fraud through impersonation or stolen identities.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Checks

To further enhance security and ensure compliance, businesses must also ensure that Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and identity verification work in harmony. These involve screening individuals against databases of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), sanctions lists, and adverse media reports. AML checks help businesses identify high-risk individuals or entities that could be involved in financial crime or corruption.

  • PEPs checks focus on identifying individuals in positions of political power, who may be at a higher risk of corruption.
  • Sanctions checks ensure that businesses are not engaging with individuals or companies flagged by governments or international organisations for criminal activities.
  • Adverse media checks search for negative news coverage or reports linked to a person’s involvement in illegal or unethical behaviour.

Anti-Fraud Checks

Another critical component of the identity verification process is performing anti-fraud checks. These checks are designed to detect potentially suspicious behaviour or patterns that could indicate fraudulent activity. Anti-fraud systems often rely on machine learning algorithms to analyse transactions, device fingerprints, and geolocation data, allowing businesses to spot inconsistencies that could signal fraud.

Re-screening and Ongoing Monitoring

Identity verification doesn’t end after the initial onboarding process. Businesses must conduct periodic re-screening of their customers to monitor for changes in risk status. For instance, a customer may initially pass all verification checks but later be added to a sanctions list, become a PEP, or appear in adverse media.

Re-screening helps businesses stay compliant with regulations, as well as stay ahead of evolving threats. It ensures that any changes to a customer’s risk profile are detected early, minimising exposure to potential fraud or reputational damage.

What are the IDV Challenges That Regulated Businesses Face?

Regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and telecom face unique challenges in implementing identity verification solutions. Compliance with laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), along with stringent KYC and AML regulations, requires businesses to handle sensitive customer data with care while avoiding regulatory penalties.

Additionally, balancing security with customer experience is a common hurdle. Lengthy or complicated verification processes can result in lost business due to customer friction, while weak processes expose businesses to risk. Moreover, businesses must stay updated with rapidly evolving fraud tactics, which require regular updates to verification systems.

Will AI Be a Key Factor in Identity Verification Moving Forward?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly vital role in identity verification. AI-driven systems can analyse large volumes of data, perform document verification, and detect anomalies in real-time, helping businesses streamline IDV without compromising security.

Biometrics identity verification systems are a prime example of how AI is used to improve both security and user experience. Facial recognition technology can verify identities in seconds, and machine learning algorithms improve with every interaction, refining their accuracy over time.

AI also enables continuous monitoring, allowing businesses to stay ahead of emerging fraud tactics and adapt to new threats more effectively.

What Regulations Do Businesses Need to Be Aware of for Identity Verification?

Businesses operating in highly regulated industries must comply with various global regulations surrounding identity verification. These include:

  • Know Your Customer (KYC) laws, which mandate that businesses collect and verify customer information to prevent identity fraud and financial crime.
  • Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, including the 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD) in the EU, which require businesses to screen customers against sanctions, PEPs lists, and other high-risk categories.
  • GDPR and CCPA are privacy laws that dictate how businesses handle personal data, including identity verification records.

Staying compliant with these laws is not only a legal requirement but a crucial part of building customer trust and protecting sensitive information.

Future Identity Verification Trends

The future of identity verification will likely be shaped by a combination of emerging technologies and tightening regulations. Some trends to watch include:

  • Blockchain for identity verification: Blockchain offers a decentralised, tamper-proof system for storing identity data, making it difficult for fraudsters to manipulate information.
  • Biometric identity verification: The adoption of biometrics will continue to grow, with biometrics identity verification systems becoming the norm for fast, secure authentication.
  • Increased regulation: As fraud continues to rise, regulatory frameworks around identity verification will become more stringent, pushing businesses to adopt even more robust verification systems.

Understanding the different types of identity verification is crucial for businesses to protect themselves and their customers from fraud. From KYC checks and biometric identity verification to AML screening and anti-fraud checks, each stage in the IDV process adds a layer of security, ensuring that only legitimate customers gain access to sensitive services.

By staying compliant with regulations and adopting cutting-edge technologies like AI and blockchain, businesses can future-proof their identity verification processes and mitigate risk in an increasingly digital world.

Want to learn more about how you can use identity verification as a driver of compliance with regulation and revenue generation? Contact FullCircl today for a demonstration of our automated identity verification software.

Customer Experience

What's New with the FullCircl Training & Enablement Team?

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Mike Blackadder

Boosting your investment

Our vast suite of face-to-face, digital and bespoke training solutions are designed to help you optimise your use of our platform. It covers everything from onboarding enablement, and product training; helping you become a super user.  The common objective of all our courses is to help you make the most of your FullCircl investment, and have the best user experience possible.

What’s more, our courses are CPD-accredited.  This allows you to accrue development hours and remain constantly up to date with the latest industry standards, techniques, and knowledge you need to drive continuous value.

Transforming your team

Our Training and Enablement team are constantly evolving to stay ahead of the latest learning and development trends - such as personalised and interactive learning, micro-learning and bite-sized content, soft skills training, and continuous development techniques which adapt with you and your needs.

Evolving with you

So, what’s new with the team, and what does this mean for you?

Time for a refresh:

Following the merger with W2 and the expansion of our range of advanced AML, KYC and IDV tools, we had a total refresh of all our courses.  We’ve also significantly broadened our suite, which now includes:

  • Essential training to help you get set up for success.
  • Advanced training which takes you on a continual learning journey, constantly equipping you with the skills to drive growth with compliance solved.
  • Two new LinkedIn courses to help you become an established thought leader, increase engagement, and forge effective networks and collaborations.
  • Bespoke training…

Personalised learning experiences:

Ahead of the curve, our training sessions are not generic programs, but instead bespoke learning experiences designed to cater to the needs of our diverse range of learners, preferred styles, and unique business and market-specific needs. A one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t resonate anymore, so we continuously work to improve our range of personalised learning experiences - recent offerings have included needs-based courses such as identifying underinsurance, insight-led outreach, and cyber security focused initiatives.

Broader consumption options:

As well as face-to-face, virtual and self-paced e-learning, we’ve recently introduced bite-sized training. This micro-learning technique delivers content in small, focused chunks and has been proven to drive up engagement and knowledge retention, and make continuous learning more manageable.  Our new hybrid approach to training is designed to map and mirror your own modern working environment.

Monthly lunch and learns:

We’ve introduced a new range of 30-45 minute lunch sessions (held on the second Wednesday of every month) covering soft, professional and practical skills and mental wellbeing. Sessions include ChatGPT, PowerPoint perfection, Excel essentials, presenting with impact, LinkedIn 101, task and time management, and working from home optimisation.

BIBA Webinars:

Following the success of our BIBA facility, we’ve teamed up to host a range of free interactive webinars to help generate new leads, initiate timely engagement with clients, prospects and industry thought leaders, and increase revenue.  These sessions attracted more than 250 delegates each, and received the highest satisfaction scores in delegate feedback among all BIBA webinars.

More post-learning support:

We’ve expanded our range of post-training support options to include mop-up sessions, informative PDFs, bite-sized videos, and session recordings.  This helps us cater to diverse learning styles and needs, and ensure you always have the resources your require at your fingertips.

But we’ve not stopped there…

When we succeed, our customers succeed

We know that our success helps drive yours.  This is why we introduced the new FullCircl Leadership Enablement Programme, designed to help our own team develop essential leadership skills through a structured, interactive approach.

The course consists of six core modules where participants explore self-leadership, learn to create a supportive environment by addressing unconscious bias and fostering trust, and establish clear expectations and goals. Emphasis is placed on building strong individual and team relationships, delivering effective feedback, and mastering coaching techniques.

The FullCircl Training and Enablement team is committed to helping you stay at the forefront when it comes to starting smarter, to grow faster with compliance solved.  Our effective and accessible training solutions support you in creating dynamic user experiences, empowering skills development, and help you and your business continually evolve.

To find out more about how we can help maximise your investment in FullCircl, get in touch. Or why not see us in action by joining one of our complementary public training sessions.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Identity Verification
Identity Verification
Product Updates
Product Updates
Sales Intelligence
Sales Intelligence
SME Economy
SME Economy
Risk Management
Risk Management
KYC / KYB
KYC / KYB
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation
Customer Lifecycle Intelligence
Customer Lifecycle Intelligence
Customer Experience
Customer Experience
Customer Due Diligence
Customer Due Diligence
Current Affairs
Current Affairs
Client Onboarding
Client Onboarding
Business Automation
Business Automation
Payments
Payments
Gambling
Gambling
Financial Services
Financial Services
Corporates
Corporates
FinTech
FinTech
Insurance
Insurance
Banking
Banking