From admitting our children in school to opening an account in a bank, the system needs to verify documents to permit us to have our entry registered in the related field. With the evolution of digitalization, there has been a noticeable increase in cybercrime, identity fraud, and document forgery. Many regulations have been introduced to constrain this increasing corruption, and cybersecurity experts have also been diligently working on reducing the forging attempts. But even though so many privacy controls have been taken, these attackers still find a way to slip through the cracks in the system and damage the organization. Financial institutes especially suffer a significant hit in their reputation and monetary section, if they don’t cover and take precautionary measures to approximate their security. With the help of AI, we can enhance cybersecurity and can reduce forgery attempts and data breaches. Facilitating the department with the document verification process can not only increase the authenticity of the documents but also supports the Know Your Customer (KYC) essential of the banking organizations.
A little about forgery
What is a forgery? It is faking, altering, or changing an item. Forged documents are mostly used to gain illegal benefits from the organizations, and even though most countries have strict fines and confinement regulations related to the crime, criminals still find a way to work through and use it to gain unjustified benefits.
What is Know Your Customer (KYC)?
In banking, Know Your Customer is compliance meant to be strictly followed. KYC means knowing the customer of your organization and checking if the activities associated with that person are according to the law or are prohibited. In banking, KYC comes with AML and monitors the illegal transactions and criminal activities of the individual associated with the bank. KYC is a crucial step in banking because it ensures that the customer is real and the money deposited is coming from legal sources. It is also a prevention measure to stop the attempts of money laundering, corruption, and funding of terrorism.
Identity document verification – A snapshot
Identity verification of documents is an attempt to prevent criminals from providing documents that are not real; forge or stolen. Verification documents check the accuracy of the document and ensure if the information in them is real and belongs to the individual providing it. If this step is skipped, there is a huge likelihood that an attempt related to submitting forged documents can occur, and the organization may suffer through it.
Document attestation is important!
Verification documents have grievous importance. As published by Tribune news service, an incident was reported when Bir Shiv Nath Grover, a shopkeeper, complained to police about receiving a notice from Income Tax Department, stating that he made the transaction of Rs 15 crore from different accounts under his name, which he hadn’t. The police later arrested the owner of the private bank for forging the documents, opening accounts with it, and making transactions through it. In another case, a bank manager was arrested for making transactions from the account of Raj Kumari who was a resident of Chowk Moni. According to a 2020’s BBC report, the National Crime Agency is facing a backlash for not investigating the evidence of the banks forging signatures, all while receiving 19 boxes containing the evidence.
How does the document verification solution work?
Artificial Intelligence is a convenient approach to gaining authentic document attestation outcomes. The system can extract the information provided on the document, screen it against the government-issued identity document and provide accurate results. Moreover, with facial recognition, the AI-based system can verify the person, in possession of the scanned document, is what he is claiming to be. This can be done by analyzing the face of the person with 3D mapping and skin texture analysis. The liveness of steameast and the person will be detected and the system will generate the report by examining and comparing the face with the picture attached to the government-issued identity card. Consequently, a legitimate verification document can be achieved.
The assistance of document verification services with KYC in banking
In KYC, customers are required to provide credentials related to their identity and income sources before opening an account in the bank. The identification of the forged documents is an arduous struggle and requires various checks to confirm that the information provided by the customer is not forged. With the inclusion of AI, we can accomplish ID document authentication, and thus, the banks benefit from it.