KYC is knowing your customer or knowing your client. KYC verification is used to confirm a customer’s identity before opening an account. In the financial sector, it’s essential to verify that customers are exactly who they claim to be. Businesses will not run the application if customers cannot meet the minimum KYC requirement.
Importance Of KYC Verification
Kyc rests with the bank because it’s a significant financial sector. Banks engage in all KYC procedures, verify customers’ identities, and assess and monitor risks. Kyc verification involves face recognition and document verification like utility bills, ID cards, licenses, etc. To stop fraud and the financing of terrorism, banks must adhere to anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. In cases of noncompliance, heavy penalties and jail time can be imposed.
The documents needed for KYC verification are
- Customer’s name
- Address
- Identification number
- Date of birth
The verification process must be such that it ensures the customer’s identity is appropriately validated.
Who Uses KYC Verification?
Financial and non-financial institutions and online businesses use KYC verification. KYC is performed two times during the first interaction of a customer with the entity, once when opening an account or requesting one, and again during the whole process to check whether the account is under the customer’s control. It is done through monitoring and tracking. It will be reported to help protect customers and firms if anything suspicious occurs.
Benefits Of KYC Verification
KYC verification ensures businesses that the client is legitimate. It helps companies to protect themselves from entering a relationship with illegal parties that can cause financial crimes. KYC verifies identities through automated tools and prevents fraud and identity theft.
Identity Theft
Kyc asks users to prove their identity before opening an account. The user has to make a reasonable effort to prove their identity. So, it’s harder for fraudsters to open others’ accounts with forged documents or stolen information.
Through KYC verification, businesses can stop opening fake accounts, validate customers’ information, protect their identities for future proceedings, and prevent fraudulent activity.
Financial Frauds
Financial fraud is a burden on a firm. KYC solutions prevent financial crimes by preventing fraudsters from betraying real customers by using stolen IDs and fake accounts to steal money.
Prevent Money Laundering
Money laundering is changing the money obtained from illegal sources to a legal value. Launderers often create it from “dummy” accounts to make money. KYC verification reduces money laundering by verifying accounts and customers and checking the transactions and sources.
Terrorist Financing
KYC verification matches the names against the database to highlight terrorists and seize their accounts. KYC helps the government track the money generated, transformed, and used to aid terrorist financing.
Businesses That Use KYC
Following businesses leverage KYC verification before giving access to customers to their services.
- Credit unions
- Investment firms
- Banks
- Insurance companies
- Lenders
- Travel companies
- Online gambling websites or casinos
- Healthcare
KYC Verification Process
The KYC procedure is completed during the customer’s initial encounter with the business. The procedure will seem like this.
Form Filling
The customer must complete the form, which asks for basic details like name, address, birth date, and identity number.
Collection Of Document
In the second step, the customer will submit government-issued documents like pictures, CNICs, and utility bills for proof of address.
Extraction Of Data
The automated tools and software will extract the data from the documents. The data will be verified and processed.
Document Validation
The extracted data from the document is matched against the existing data in the database to validate the document. If the data is identical, the identity validation will be complete. The application will be turned down if inconsistencies are found. It indicates a red flag.
Customer’s ID Verification
Face recognition and biometric verification can also be used to verify the customers’ identities further and match them with their IDs.
Conclusion
KYC authentication helps businesses build relationships with legitimate clients and prevent financial crimes by verifying customers’ identities. The KYC process requires few documents and quickly verifies customers. It secures economic sectors and accounts through various identity checks.
