Category: Think-Tank

Welcome to our Think Tank category, a dedicated space designed to host thought-provoking discussions and thorough analyses related to the future landscape of fintech. As an influential player in the fintech industry, we believe in the power of knowledge sharing and the exchange of insights as a means to cultivate an environment that fosters innovation and thought leadership.

The Think Tank is a hub of articles that span an array of topics. We delve into everything from the profound impact of regulatory changes on fintech to the transformative role of artificial intelligence within the realm of financial services. Our objective is to provide a forum for insightful discourse that stimulates thought, encourages debates, and acts as a catalyst for innovation.

At Signzy, our passion lies in exploring and envisioning the future of fintech, and sharing our vision with the world. Our Think Tank is a testament to this passion. It’s a platform where we showcase our ideas, share our insights, and make predictions about the evolution of the fintech industry.

Whether you are a fintech professional at the forefront of industry developments, a business leader steering your organization through the digital landscape, or an individual intrigued by the future of finance, our Think Tank offers a treasure trove of thought-provoking insights and stimulating discussions.

We invite you to join us on this exciting intellectual journey as we explore the future of fintech, sharing our vision for a financial landscape that is more efficient, secure, and customer-centric. Step into our Think Tank, where ideas fuel innovation and discussions shape the future of fintech. Let’s explore, question, and envision the future of finance together.

Tackling Talent Shortage in The Fintech Industry And Other Financial Services

Posted on | by Signzian

With a stunning 182% boost in tech job growth, the global fintech industry did exceedingly well in the first quarter of 2022. But it is predicted that the sector will face massive hurdles in the coming quarters of 2022 as a significant shortage in tech talent threatens to decrease the growth of the global fintech sector.

Although lack of skilled labor accounts for part of this concern, the primary issue lies within increased attrition. Some may even attribute this to ‘The Great Resignation’ phenomenon. Nonetheless, there must be ways to consider this.

As soon as Fintechs improved at loping the client acquisition challenge, talent acquisition and retention became a new obstacle. The threat of losing a qualified and growing workforce and customer service amplifies the sales-related stress. With that in mind, retaining talented people is becoming as important as bringing in new customers.

From Where Does The Concern Incept?

Among the primary concerns that prevent employees from being efficient and loyal to their jobs is a maze of offers from other companies. However, with the increased presence of open banking and the rise of new fintech players, employees have ample choice now in what they do and where they want to do it.

Since 2001 financial technology workers in the USA quit their jobs at the highest rate, according to a 2019 US Bureau of Labor Statistics report. This increased to a tremendous rate following the COVID-19 Outbreak. In December 2021 alone, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs. It’s therefore vital for businesses to ensure that they have the right work cultures and processes to enable and nurture talent, especially as they are going through hyper-growth.

Now is the time for executive and primary leaders to acknowledge and adapt to the evolving needs of their employees. This is to be done with as much dedication and commitment as they provide their customers. Gallup reported that more than half of the workforce in America is disengaged from their respective jobs. At the same time, the engaged employees considerably reduce the associated cost of turnover, which usually remains high. The overall customer experience and annual revenue directly link to employee retention and decreased attrition damage.

According to another report, the draining shortage of software engineers in the fintech industry in the past three years makes recruiting harder. Unfortunately, this also increases the time to fill exponentially. As a result, the cost of incorporating a new software engineer into the workforce is rising, and a reputed HR brand, together with employee retention and decreased attrition processes, increases in importance.

Ensuring Employee Retention With A Good HR Brand

Companies that understand and value employee experience are already on a good start. They should promote initiatives to improve the employee experience. As a result, their customer experience success rate will boost. The favorable outcomes earned through apt and efficient strategic employee engagement will generate a workplace culture that values the trust among employees as well as external customers they interact with each day.

The game plan must include multiple vital components to keep the HR management on top, well-informed, and proactive. There are several aspects to consider while pursuing this goal. Still, to keep it concise, the following are the primary three points you must never ignore when it comes to interacting and engaging the employees:

Speak To And Be Accessible To Your Employees.

A famous firm that shall not be named refers to its employees as resources. It seems absurd to reasonable ears to hear a human being referred to as a resource. Moreover, it gives an outright impression that the company sees its employees as objects. This is the wrong approach.

Your employees are your company’s spine. They are humans. They need proper communication with their colleagues and must feel secure. When isolated, they will feel insecure, resulting in inefficient performances. That’s why talents value good management’s transparency and approachability in a friendly atmosphere. Hence, when you interact with your employees on casual topics or engage in occasional conversations, consider letting them know of your good mood; it highly encourages their loyalty and sincerity, which are vital to keeping them on the ship.

Improve Talent With Effective Educational And Growth Opportunities

A proper sense of fulfillment at work fundamentally depends on how the enterprise recognizes and acknowledges the individual traits of an employee. If a company focuses on encouraging growth and formulates a professional pathway for each employee, it resolves numerous problems at the workplace. Some of the perks include:

  • It shows that employees are valued and vital to the organization.
  • It helps engage their interests and allows them to concentrate and be actively efficient.
  • It fetches the best talent out there.

Enhancing business knowledge is essential for all employees’ professional training and support for growth. Accompanying the loyalty this deems, it brings a better understanding of internal and external processes to the game, helping the management avoid any mistakes. It also shortens development time to nearly 50 percent. The usual personal financial perks provided for employees in the fintech industry will also help. They learn more about investing, banking processes, and different financial companies/markets. The employees can benefit from all this by making better decisions to engage in good financial companies.

Make Sure to Engage Teams, Especially The Remote Ones

Today, creating distributed teams is a current trend in team management. If managed resourcefully, your company will benefit from hiring remote individuals and skilled labor. However, it’s an unfair conclusion that having a widely distributed team is a high risk. Proper management makes such a team more than a success. Unfortunately, only 8 percent of the companies that utilize alternative workers know how to establish processes efficiently. There are methods to determine and resolve the problems in the fintech industry that diminish the team’s efficiency and ensure that the transition to a distributed team is safe and smooth.

Remote employees  also need to communicate with peers, craft networks, share opinions, and know that they are acknowledged and appreciated. Ensure to make them feel to be part of the work family without insisting upon it; they will chime in more than they need to when it’s needed. 

In Essence

Considering the current scenario of the Great Resignation, many leaders are taking action. For example, a recent report from Gartner revealed that 58% of all IT heads reported an increase in emerging tech investments in 2021. In 2020 this was 29%. And most of this will be aimed at sustaining a talent-rich environment in the industry.

Skilled labor is indeed hard to retain. Finding it is harder still. Hence with consideration for the employees without compromising the vision each enterprise engages in, we can pave a path forward. And this path can lead to the penultimate sustenance of a self-engaged financial ecosystem, ultimately tackling the talent shortage in the fintech industry. From thenceforth, we can pursue what every innovative fintech aspires for; a revolution in the sector for the better.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering totally customizable workflows. It gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru, and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Enhancing Economy with e-RUPI- India’s Innovative Venture Ahead Of Digital Currency

Posted on | by Signzian

Introduction

Between the years 1990 and 2018, the social security and welfare revenue expenditure of India was more than INR1.6 trillion. Observers point out that much of this did not reach the beneficiaries as mediators consumed the lion’s share. The central government is implementing a new mode to tackle this issue- e-RUPI.

For years the RBI’s aversion towards digital currencies was attributed to the bureaucratic influence from administrations. Now the same administrations are taking steps to approach the future of the economy. e-RUPI is the nation’s latest digital nudge in the financial revolution that will certainly improve the efficiency of welfare programs. More importantly, it will pave a smoother path for the digitization of currency in India.

e-RUPI connects the beneficiaries of the service and the service providers digitally. This avoids all physical interventions, rendering the need for mediators moot. It ensures that all payments are completed only when the transaction is concluded.

How Does e-RUPI Work?

The concerned entity delivers a QR code or an SMS string to the beneficiary’s phone. This enables the user to access it as e-RUPI, a contactless digital payments system. It is similar to a prepaid gift voucher redeemable at select centers. This eliminates all needs for any debit or credit card, internet banking, or even a mobile app. The connection between the service provider and the beneficiary is strictly digital, making it exceedingly foolproof.

NPCI(National Payments Corporation of India) built e-RUPI on its other innovative venture, the UPI platform. Partner banks of the initiative authenticate the details of the specific persons and the purpose of the transaction with which corporate or government agencies approach them. Beneficiaries identify using their mobile number. The banks also provide a voucher to the service provider with the name of the respective beneficiary. This is delivered to the same individual with all security parameters met.

Advantages of e-RUPI

The primary advantage the government notes is a leak-proof proof delivery of all welfare schemes and services incorporated. This may even include schemes for providing medicine and drugs for deserving citizens without hassle or bureaucratic delay.

With more than 17.1% of the entire youth populace being female, it is highly essential to ensure that welfare schemes for women be efficient and devoid of foul play. That is why Mother and Child welfare schemes are also included under the banner. Other major programs set to adopt e-RUPI are TB eradication programs, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, fertilizer and farming subsidies, etc.

The government recommends the private sector utilize this option as well. The system can be used for CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) Programmes and employee welfare. Once the corporate sector embraces the benefits of such a system, the national economic landscape will witness terraforming.

e-RUPI vs. Digital Currencies

Despite a frigid history of India’s aversion for digital currencies and the looming concern of a pan-nation crypto ban, the government and associated agencies are taking all steps to transform that image. They are already working on a central bank digital currency(CBDC). This coupled with the potential of e-RUPI to fill the wedges in digital payment infrastructure can result in a successful future for digital currency in the country.

But the catch is that, unlike digital currencies, e-RUPI is still backed by the existing INR as the underlying asset currency. This makes it more of an advanced voucher system than a sophisticated digital currency. Nonetheless, this is a step in the right direction for the whole nation, as financial digitization is certainly an inevitable factor.

How Can Signzy Help?

With even currency being digitized, the Indian financial ecosystem faces challenges in determining the legitimacy of parties involved in digital transactions. Fortified and secure instruments are needed to ensure that all customers, beneficiaries, providers, and even companies are credible. Signzy helps you do exactly that!

We are an RPA-platform for financial and regulatory services. With our state-of-the-art AI-powered technology with a quiver of APIs, products, and resources customizable for your specific needs, none of the hurdles that come with adapting to e-RUPI is an issue. We can make your transition smooth and seamless. Be it KYC of your customer, or a provider approaching your financial institution, we can craft the exact solution you need. Your safety and satisfaction are our priority.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Knowing KYC Norms- How will RBI’s Latest Directive For Implementing V-CIP Affect The BFSI Sector?

Posted on | by Signzian

The Reserve Bank has always tried to remain adaptable in changing times. Its directive to utilize a video-based customer identification process(V-CIP) for know your customer (KYC) procedures is the latest evidence for this. The announcement came as an amendment in its master direction on the 10th of May 2021.

V-CIP utilizes facial recognition technology to identify the customer. It can also include an authorised official from the regulated entity (usually an RM) performing the live customer due diligence with informed consent for verification. This is far more convenient, secure, and seamless since the whole process is an audio-visual interaction between the RM and the customer.

What Is The RBI’s Directive?

The Reserve Bank stipulates regulated entities(RE) to use V-CIP in Customer Due Diligence(CDD) for:

  • New individual customer onboarding.
  • Proprietors(Proprietorship Firms)
  • Beneficial Owners(BOs) and authorised signatories among legal entity customers.

The directive is also for other RBI regulated entities including banks, payment system operators and NBFCs. Updation of KYC for existing customers and customers who had opened accounts through non-face-to-face modes( Using Aadhar OTP based e-KYC verification) is also to be done with V-CIP.

The RBI provides guidelines for a minimum standard for all REs to maintain baseline cybersecurity for banks and financial institutions. These include them:

  • House all technology infrastructure in the RE’s premises.
  • Use secured network domains for V-CIP connection origins.
  • Ensure all outsourcing of technology associated with the process to be compliant with respective RBI guidelines.
  • Maintain end-to-end encryption of information between V-CIP hosting point and customer’s device.
  • Obtain auditable and alteration proof customer consent.
  • Create a transparent workflow and SOP(standard operating procedure) for all V-CIP related processing.

REs should appoint specially trained officials for operating the V-CIP process. These officials would record audio-video and obtain photographs(mostly real-time) of customers whose identification is to be verified.

These officials can obtain the customer identification information with an Offline or OTP based Aadhaar e-KYC verification. They can also retrieve the required information from CKYCR or equivalent OVD e-document repository through DigiLocker.

How Will It Impact The Sector?

Many financial institutions have already taken up V-CIP as an additional armour of protection against fraudsters and scammers. The RBI’s amendment of the master direction will further encourage more institutions and REs to adopt V-CIP. The usually hesitant players will adopt this mode of technology for their benefit. Even the traditionally slow to adapt government sector banks and NBFCs will also follow suit.

The change would not only affect the REs and institutions, but also the customers in a rather positive fashion. With the pandemic looming over the country, every individual desire to be safe and avoid all in-person interactions. With this directive, the REs and financial institutions are compelled to help solve this issue. With remote V-CIP methods, all customers will be at zero health risk.

Additionally, no customer prefers the extra time commuting and the plethora of documentation formalities that may follow in legacy systems of CDD. V-CIP makes the journey easier, preferable and convenient for the customer, all while saving the REs and their employees time and resources.

But it is important to be aware of how REs avail V-CIP services from Regtech firms. When it comes to such crucial aspects it is always safe to bet on reliable and supportive companies for assistance.

Why Signzy?

Signzy is a ‘no-code AI platform’ for financial services. No matter how complex a workflow or an operation, Signzy can completely automate the back-office operations and decision-making processes into a real-time API. Signzy’s pantheon of V-CIP related products is efficient and reliable to another class.

Some of the features Signzy’s V-CIP and Video KYC products have are:

  • Real-time OVD verification
  • Matching face on ID with face in the video (with % confidence score)
  • Unlimited video storage and instant retrieval
  • Geo-location capture and IP check
  • End-to-end encryption for video, channel, and communication
  • Video forensics for pre-recorded risk and spoof detection
  • Digital forgery check on the displayed ID proof
  • Customer identity verification through offline Aadhaar XML
  • Seamless and interactive UI for live video interaction
  • Timestamp and audit trail for every application and video interaction

Signzy’s V-CIP services and products are 100% in compliance with all the RBI regulatory guidelines and directives. This is essential as all REs are supervised for the right compliance practices and Signzy offers to negate all possible complications. Signzy’s solutions are easy to use with immediate responses which make it fast and efficient.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Online Gaming

Why Is KYC Necessary For Online Gaming?

Posted on | by Signzian

Know Your Customer, is essential in the online gaming realm to ensure the integrity, safety, and compliance of the platform. As the digital gaming industry expands, it’s imperative to verify the identity of players to prevent fraudulent activities, underage participation, and potential misuse for money laundering.

The global online gambling industry was worth more than $45 billion in 2017 and is predicted to rise to $94.4 billion by 2024. With such a stark rise in use and increasingly large sums of money moving through these entities, online gambling and gaming institutions are facing the same scrutiny to which other banks and other financial entities are subject. Prime targets for identity fraud, money laundering, and international financial crime, regulatory compliance is intensifying to ensure that online casinos and gambling institutions are taking serious measures to prevent such illicit activity.

However, as the demand for online gambling services increases, so does the stringency of regulatory compliance. Not only does this mean hiring a large compliance team to deal with the backlog, but online casinos are also now subject to higher costs and wait times for identity verification procedures. In this sense, manual KYC processing for casinos is a little outdated, offering a clunky solution that wastes time, squanders budgets, and is littered with errors.

The Backdrop Of Online Gaming In the USA

In the USA, online gambling establishments that have gross revenue of over $1 million are classed as non-bank financial institutions (NBFI). This means they must adhere to similar regulations as banks to help prevent fraud, financial crimes, and money laundering. 

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is responsible for monitoring the compliance of AML regulations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The BSE requires that financial institutions must help the government identify and prevent money laundering by identifying, flagging, and reporting certain suspicious activity and transactions. FinCEN has assigned this responsibility to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure compliance measures are being met.

For relevant online casinos, AML measures include filing suspicious activity reports (SARs) for unusual transactions of over $5000, as well as reporting currency transactions of over $10,000. There are also extremely tight requirements for recordkeeping and receipt storage, as well as credit extensions over $10,000. 

While all of these AML measures are a must, US online casinos are first required to accurately identify and verify customers using KYC processes. Failure to do so results in unbelievable fines. 

In fact, the American Gaming Association (AMA) recently updated its policies. According to these new regulations, US users can not open an account without providing basic PII details: full legal name, address, and social security number. More importantly, however, no real money transactions can be undertaken without submitting an official government ID and proof of a permanent address.

The poignant point here is that AMA’s rules apply to the patron, not the casino as such. In this sense, a US citizen using an online casino in a different jurisdiction must still provide this information. If online gambling platforms don’t have measures in place for this, they are in danger of non-compliance.

Call For KYC In The Gaming Industry – How It Can Help?

 

Almost 4.4 billion people globally are active internet users as of April 2019. This means that nearly 60% of the human population has the means to connect and interact with the online world around them. It’s no surprise that these combined factors have fueled the market for online gambling and gaming. In an already heavily regulated marketplace, this rapid growth is bringing Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) to the forefront of regulators’ agendas around the world.

With a wide range of options for users to gamble online, it makes sense that the companies that will come out on top are going to strike a balance between compliance and user experience. The question is, how can companies maintain compliance without sacrificing an incredible gaming experience for their users?

Why do online gambling and gaming companies need to be responsible for KYC?

Companies in the online gambling and gaming industries are legally obligated to verify user identity, age, location, and source of funds among other categories to protect their users and platform from bad actors and fraud.

One of the major reasons for this is the need to avoid money laundering and terrorist funding. If proper KYC is not performed on contestants and participants, the platform can be used to launder money and use it for assimilating funds for dangerous organizations. Many laws are created to prevent such practices and most gaming organizers and companies must abide to it.

Just as reputable companies prioritize trust when it comes to providing users with fair play and a secure environment, users must be able to trust that information being collected from them is being handled appropriately and safeguarded.

Companies looking to stay both in compliance and competitive are seeking advanced onboarding & identity verification solutions to…

  • Protect the company and users from bad actors and fraud
  • Continuously comply with the latest global regulations
  • Deliver a seamless, trustworthy, and user-friendly experience

KYC in The Gaming Industry – Mistakes That Could Be Avoided

Casinos deal in financial transactions, often on a very large scale. Online gambling platforms and casinos can turn over millions of dollars a day, making them a prime target for money laundering and financial crimes. Not only that, the lack of face-to-face interaction on internet gambling platforms makes it easier for fraudulent users to play on these sites without detection.

KYC and identity verification processes are designed to help reduce the risks of illicit activity by identifying customers and verifying that this identity is correct. In doing this, suspicious characters and potentially high-risk users can be flagged and monitored, or banned.

As in every industry, a risk-based approach is very important and necessary in the gaming industry. For an AML control program to achieve its purpose, it is very important to identify risks and take precautions against risks. As part of the risk-based approach, game operators must implement risk assessment by implementing AML controls to new customers throughout the customer engagement process. Know Your Customer and Customer Due Diligence procedures describe the controls that must be implemented during the customer onboarding process.

Online Gaming

  • Currently, it’s predicted that 2-5% of the US’s GDP is laundered money, equating to between $800 billion and $2 trillion. Unfathomable sums of this nature have the power to shake the bedrock of the US economy.
  • While money laundering may seem to be a primary concern for banks and financial entities, studies show that casinos are ripe for money laundering. In 2014, Finnish gambling operators submitted over 9000 money laundering reports. 
  • Studies are showing that criminal groups, known as dot.cons work together to ‘wash’ funds by deliberately losing games and claiming ‘clean’ prize money. A great example of this was The  Corozzo Network, operating from 2005 to 2008. The network of 26 members ran illegal gambling and loan-sharking services through four online gambling sites, laundering more than $10 million.
  • More recently, CG Technology (trading as Cantor Gaming) was fined $22.5 million by various regulatory bodies in 2016 for poor AML provisions. The gambling company’s lack of AML procedures enabled 26 individuals, known as the ‘Jersey Boys’, to launder large sums of money through the platform with bad bets.
  • Further still, as technology advances, the schemes become more complex. Thanks to the introduction of virtual credit cards, prepaid mobile credit, and alternative payment gateways like PayPal, micro-laundering is now easier than ever and far less detectable.

By introducing strict KYC checks, casinos mitigate the risk of becoming vehicles for money laundering as high-risk individuals are flagged from the outset.

How Digital KYC Can Help The Online Gaming Industry

As we can see from above, KYC and AML (Anti Money Laundering) solutions can save business owners a lot of hassle. Digital KYC systems would have carried out comprehensive background checks identifying possible threats and allowing the owner to take action accordingly. The online gaming industry is a hotspot for money laundering although certain policies are governing the industry the chance is still there that it could be used for terrorist funding.

Signzy is an AI-powered RPA platform that provides digital onboarding solutions with our no-code AI model builder and our Fintech API Marketplace of over 200+ APIs. Our unique solution provides:

  • Secure System: A customer’s account information is secure because the entire process is online. Identity theft, fraud, loan scams, money laundering, the flow of black money, etc. are all minimized with RealKYC.
  • Efficient Communication: Effective information can be relayed in an efficient and timely manner. There is no need for constant back and forth. Most details are published automatically unlike manual KYC.
  • ‘Free of Cost’ Process:  RealKYC verification doesn’t charge any extra amount to the customer. A company or institution may need to pay automation costs of installing verification systems for the long run but the end-user gets a seamless, almost instant onboarding without hassle.
  • Faster processing: The RealKYC service is completely automated online. This means that KYC data can be transferred in real-time without the need for any manual intervention. The paper-based KYC process can take days up to weeks to get verified, but the eKYC process takes just a few minutes to verify and issue.

At Signzy, we have also introduced a new form of KYC verification called VideoKYC. This is a faster and more efficient form of KYC collection and verification. It conducts liveliness checks against the user as well as verifies the identification document against forgeries. The VideoKYC product has gained a lot of recognition and won several awards in recent months.

Advantages of using VideoKYC

  • Higher Application Accuracy
  • Plug and Play solution, swift Go-To-Market
  • Comprehensive Training Program
  • Competitive Advantage through customer delight
  • 100% compliant with the latest RBI Mandate
  • Exponentially increase Scale of Operations
  • Reduced back office overheads (up to 70%)
  • Reduction in customer Drop-offs (up to 50%)
  • Platform Agnostic, support multiple communication channels

Conclusion

The online gaming industry is evolving rapidly around the world and expanding with each passing day. Gaming sites have improved tremendously in terms of user experience and now, they can make it more secure by enhancing the membership security protocols. Providing different gaming sites the ease of accurate digital ID verification will increase their revenue manifold. The introduction of digital KYC services has already been a huge success in financial and other sectors. Hopefully, its adoption in the near future might lead to more secure online gaming services in the US.

 

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

How NBFC-Account Aggregators Ease Financial Processes And Protect Privacy

Posted on | by Signzian
How NBFC-Account Aggregators Ease Financial Processes And Protect Privacy 0
Account Aggregators(AA) are financial entities belonging to a new class of NBFCs introduced by the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) in 2016. With consent, NBFC-AAs consolidate, organize, and retrieve customers’ financial data when required by Financial Information Users(FIU) constituted mostly of NBFCs for a fee or otherwise. The mechanism must mandatorily follow consent architecture as prescribed by RBI. In a far simplified tone,

NBFC-AAs make a requirement like a loan application easier for customers by providing financial access to their data with consent.

Even though the introduction of NBFC-AA was in 2016, the concept existed prior as well. Account aggregators like Perfios and Yodlee were engaged in consolidating financial data and analysing it for customers or institutions. Recently the Government decided to bring into effect entities that keep track of scattered financial data. These entities are scrutinised by multiple financial regulators(like RBI, SEBI, IRDAI). This was an official statement of transparency.

Why are Account Aggregators needed?

Most of an individual’s financial data is scattered due to accessing multiple financial products from multiple financial institutions. The customer herself would be confused about her financial data.

Another significant factor relates to data security. For the customers, there is no way to provision data securely to distinct entities. Current modes include:

  • Account credentials are shared through third-parties.
  • Data is provided as hard copies.
  • Limited exchange of data through paperless transactions.

These modes are highly volatile as secure data acquirement and privacy can be compromised to a greater extent.

Thus the purpose of an NBFC-AA becomes to give a collective idea of the customers’ holdings and products. It provides information on multiple accounts held by the customer in a consolidated, organised and retrievable format. This will be exclusively voluntary and would not be done without the consent of the customer.

An NBFC is usually associated with transactions in financial assets by the customer. But An NBFC-AA does not have such a role in the process. It’s the only role is in account aggregation avoiding all financial transaction-oriented involvement.

NBFC-AA’s services are backed by necessary authorisations among customer, aggregator and financial service provider(FIP). This restriction along with most others have been introduced by the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC). This is where the part of an NBFC-AA covers not just the sphere of financial data but extends into other domains.

How does NBFC-AAs ease financial transactions?

NBFC-AAs can retrieve financial data of a customer from any financial regulator. This is consolidated and organised in a single portal. It can be shared with an FIU(Financial Information User), who must be regulated by a financial sector regulator like RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, etc. All data transfers should be consented by the customer without which no action will occur. For this, a detailed ‘Consent Architecture’ is to be implemented by the NBFC-AA.

In the pragmatic speech, this plethora of information is a gold mine for the FIUs(NBFCs) as it allows them to retrieve, with consent the customer’s data from the NBFC-AA. But, RBI had ruled that account aggregators can access customer data, but not store them.

The process is explained with the following illustration –[reference. Image 1]

 

Source- http://vinodkothari.com/2020/02/nbfc-aa-consent-gateways/

Some aspects of the process:

  • If a customer’s loan application is through a digital lending app, the NBFC requires the applicant’s financial data to execute a credit evaluation and determine its approval or denial.
  • NBFC-AAs would ease the process by not demanding all financial holdings data individually and in hard copy. Instead, the customer can provide consent allowing data to be revealed from the NBFC-AA to the NBFC involved(customer can even determine to what extent in time this data is to be shared). This process takes a minuscule period, usually merely seconds.
  • More than the time this saves, the information sharing impedances are considerably reduced while not compromising security.

What about when the Fintech Company is involved?

There are two partners and an entity in the process:

  • The Sourcing Partner- a fintech company
  • The Funding Partner- Usually an NBFC that provides the funds
  • The Third entity- Account Aggregators(NBFC-AA) that provide the information required with consent.

The role of a fintech entity in the triangle would be its capacity to apply for an NBFC-AA license by itself or incorporate a new entity who has applied for the license and is capable of carrying out the role of an NBFC-AA in the proceedings. The former option will require the fintech company to maintain Rs. 2 crores as Net Owned Fund (NOF) for eligibility and registration.

This image illustrates the process with a fintech entity — [reference. Image 2]

 

Source- http://vinodkothari.com/2020/02/nbfc-aa-consent-gateways/

Why is Consent Architecture the most important aspect of NBFC-AAs?

It is the most significant part of an NBFC-AA. An absence of customer’s consent will render the NBFC-AA’s capacity void. The obtainment, submission and managing of consent should strictly be consonant with the Master Directions offered by the RBI. The prescription has specifically denoted the consent to be a standardized consent artefact containing:

  • Customer’s identity.
  • Contact information.
  • Requested financial information’s nature.
  • Specified purpose of obtaining such information.
  • The identity of information recipients.
  • URL or other address to be notified every time the consent artefact is utilised to access the information
  • Consent creation date and expiry date.
  • Account Aggregator’s identity and signature/ digital signature.
  • Any other attributes prescribed by RBI.

The artefact can also be in an electronic form capable of being logged, audited and verified.

The customer can revoke the consent any time she desires rendering the artefact utility null. Once revoked, a fresh consent artefact is shared with the FIP.

Which are The Prevalent NBFC-AAs

RBI provided operating licenses to four AAs in 2016:

  • CAMS FinServ
  • Cookiejar Technologies Pvt Ltd. (Product titled Finvu)
  • FinSec AA Solutions Private Limited (The Product titled OneMoney)
  • NESL Asset Data Limited

RBI provided in-principle approvals to three AAs in 2016:

  • Jio Information Solutions Limited
  • Perfios Account Aggregation Services Pvt Ltd
  • Yodlee Finsoft Pvt Limited

Sahamati, a collective of the AA ecosystem has reported that currently, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank, HDFC Bank, and State Bank of India are developing their FIP/FIU implementation. Of these, Indusind Bank has already gone live. The reluctance exhibited by FIPs to share data with consent is considerably reducing with the evolving account aggregation domain.

BG Mahesh (Co-founder of Sahamati) said that AA platforms are in the final stage of the ‘wave one marathon. They passed the proof-of-concept stage last year. State Bank of India and a few big private banks are in the pre-production stage. In the next month, they will go into production,”

FIPs like GST, CBDT and TRAI are expected to join the ecosystem once the framework is implemented to success. The total AAs are expected to increase in number in the coming years with tech giants keeping a close eye to join in on the next wave of this evolution.

What is Sahamati and how does it further help NBFC-AAs?

DigiSahamati Foundation (Sahamati) is a not-for-profit collective of account aggregators established as a private limited company under Section 8 (of the new Companies Act of India). Sahamati came into existence as a response to the massively scattered financial data of customers and its need to be consolidated and organised.

Sahamati seeks to bring together people with versatile backgrounds in finance and technology to determine and achieve India’s Account Aggregator network, Protection Architecture and Data Empowerment. These goals and actions include examples such as ensuring banks implement proper consent architecture, FIP certifications to be robust or design novel methods for data sharing without compromise.

How do we register an AA license from RBI?

Companies with Net Owned Fund (NOF) more than 2 crores are eligible to apply for an AA license. AAs regulated by other sector regulators can not obtain a license from RBI if they are aggregating accounts and consolidating information on customers of only that sector.

Procedure for obtaining the NBFC-AA license — [reference. Image 3]

 

How NBFC-AAs Led to The Formation of DEPA

After the establishment of NBFC-AAs, an entity for a collective of Account Aggregators was expected. DigiSahamati Foundation(Sahamati) fulfilled this. Started as a private non-profit organisation, with the advice of RBI and other regulatory bodies, Sahamati was also one of the pioneers of new data architecture. This led to a more tight-knit and secure form of data architecture to be developed. This was later strategized and formulated as DEPA(Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture) in 2020.

DEPA, introduced as a draft policy by NITI Aayog is an approach or paradigm shift in managing personal data. It proposes a framework for consent approval that permits users to access and share data with third-party institutions. The policy involves RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA and the Ministry of Finance operating together for implementation.

DEPA puts forth the concept of User Consent Managers in the data architecture. They are entities that manage consent for data sharing. They work to protect data rights. They obtain selected data from FIPs and deliver it to FIUs for a specified time. What data is to be shared and for what time it is to be shared is determined by the customer. Without the customer’s consent, no process will start.

Under DEPA, the individual, potential user and the institution holding the individual’s data will interact through consent managers. These consent managers are ‘data blind’ and can not view or use the individuals’ data themselves. All information is encrypted.

How Will NBFC-AA Help Users and Their Privacy?

The idea to collate and transfer data with strict consent architecture will help a data-rich country like India towards becoming more economically rich. As interactions like verification and lending become quicker and simpler with the help of Account Aggregators, the economy with increased motion will be churned to an essence.

The major concern regarding NBFC-AAs was the issue of privacy. How safe were we with transferring data through a data manager? Once the proper structure of DEPA and how the privacy will be protected was elaborate, more companies and organizations have initiated their FIU plans. The real trust comes from the fact that none of the NBFC-AAs can breach the privacy of the user even if they collate and transfer user data. This is because:

  • No action can be initiated without the consent of the customer.
  • Customers can determine the specific data to be transferred.
  • Customer can determine the Specified time for the data to be transferred( be it a week, a month or the time he prefers).
  • The content is not revealed to NBFC-AAs.
  • The transfer is directly from FIP to FIU and NBFC-AA merely organises the interaction for a specified fee or otherwise.
  • With the help of Collectives like Sahamati grievances of all parties can be swiftly addressed.
  • Oversight by regulators provides superintendence.

The Verdict

Most modern NBFCs prefer to acquire the license or avail the services of an NBFC-AA as this would enable them to provide easier and quicker services for the customer and help themselves cut down on the expenses and manpower required, otherwise. The customer not requiring to even exit an app on her phone increases her affinity towards an institution that provides such a facility.

Nonetheless, it must be ensured that the revenue model should be constructed for the NBFC-AA to benefit from the services it would provide to other NBFCs. This would include easier approval and sanction methodology for lending.

The recent steep increase in interest for acquiring an NBFC-AA license provides sufficient evidence as to how this relatively new entity would change the financial transactions in this era.

The concerns of privacy being breached and other malpractices occurring due to the easy accessibility of personal financial data need to be considered. But one must keep in mind that the data is accessed easily, the operative word being ‘Easily’. This does not imply that it will be accessible unsafely or irresponsibly. With an impeccable consent architecture, the data accessibility is exclusive for selected entities for a selected time. The final call for all of this is for the customer.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

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